Story 1 Arrival
by hferg
Summary: A mysterious mutant comes to the Xavier Institute. What does he want? Where is he from? Note: THIS IS AN A/U FIC BASED ON X-MEN: EVOLUTION! SOME THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM THE SOURCE MATERIAL! Also, the first in a series, check my profile for more!
1. Arrival

_Author's notes (A/N from here on): First of all, thanks for reading this story. Since it's my first story I'm not quite sure how good it's going to be. I appreciate all constructive criticism and good or bad reviews. Please don't flame though, it wastes both your time and mine._

_Secondly, as for this story, it is going to be the first in what will (hopefully) be several stories. I actually already have planned out at least four more after this one. Also, in the story itself, Quotes are speaking, Italics are thinking. There will be a chapter later on that I will be replaying a memory, I'm not sure yet how that is going to be formatted._

_Third, I DON'T OWN X-MEN EVOLOUTION! This is just something I'm making because it's been stuck in my head for a while. This story, as well as any that follow it, are set in an alternate version of the Evolution storyline. As such, some of the ages and abilities of the characters may be changed slightly, as well as their alignment, but for the most part, I'm going to try to stay true to the establishment. Note also that because this is an AU fic certain things that happened in the cartoon will not have happened here._

_Fourth, the first couple chapters will be fairly tame, as I'll be concentrating on introducing some of the characters. After that, however, there will be quite a bit of violence and some swearing. I will be referencing and to some extent detailing some personal relationships, and not all of them will be guy-girl. I probably won't be writing any graphic sex scenes, as I'm not good at writing that stuff, however, I do have planned a few instances of very much R-rated material in the future. For now, I'm going to keep this story rated T but I might change it to M once it gets going, because I know it's going to be on the edge, if not over it. (Actually, can you change the rating once you've started posting?)_

_And with that, it's time to get on with the story._

**Chapter 1- Arrival**

Inside a hallway of shining silver metal, a man in a wheelchair rolls slowly down it. His face was locked in a look of concern and worry. So consumed was he by his thoughts that he almost jumped when he heard a low, gruff voice behind him. "You look troubled, Professor."

Stopping at the voice, he waited for the man behind him to catch up to him. "Good evening, Logan." he said, in a soft and kind voice, as he looked over his friend. Logan was wearing his usual attire, denim pants with a white shirt. His leather jacket had been removed and was currently draped over his right arm. His black hair was in his usual strange style, and his face as always was mostly unshaved. Although he looked like he was in his mid-thirties, anyone who knew him knew he was actually much older than that. "You're right, I am troubled. I have been trying to track several mutants in Cerebro, but lately my thoughts have been continually drifting towards Europe for some unknown reason."

Logan scoffed at the Professor's comments. He put the leather jacket on as the two began walking again. "You know that Magneto's there."

"Yes, he is. But I doubt that's the reason." The professor sighed and closed his eyes for a second before continuing. "For the last few years I have been able to detect a powerful presence there. The presence has moved around quite a bit, as if it has been hiding. I have been able to determine that this presence is definitely a mutant, however, I can't say any more than that. The troubling thing is that sometimes I cannot sense that presence at all, as if the mutant is aware and blocking me."

Logan looked at his friend surprised. "Blocking you? You think the mutant has telepathic abilities? Chuck, I hate to say it, but maybe you're slipping a little."

Charles smiled at Logan as they reached a doorway, and Logan gave him a knowing smirk. "I do not know what the powers of this mutant are, only that when I can sense him, I am filled with both concern and hope. And..." He tensed up slightly, as if something had struck him. The smirk on Logan's face vanished in an instant.

"What's wrong, Charles?"

Charles didn't answer immediately, his mouth was open slightly as a gasp left it. When he did find his voice, it was barely a whisper, and the concern in it was quite obvious. "He's here."

"What do you mean here? The mutant is now in Bayville?"

"No, Logan, he's here, on the grounds."

Indeed, outside a metal gate swung closed behind a man. The streetlights behind him cast a foreboding shadow upon the driveway as he walked through the cold November evening toward a large mansion. Because of the lack of light, it was impossible to see much of the man. All that could be seen was that he had a hood over his head and a long dark brown jacket swaying behind him as he walked. His footsteps were silent and cautious, as if he was trying not to be seen or heard. As he reached the front door to the mansion, he paused a minute. Looking around as if making sure nobody had seen him, he sighed softly and rang the doorbell. A few voices could be heard faintly from the other side of the door, apparently some people were in a room near it.

After about a minute, the door was opened by a dark skinned woman. She appeared to be in her mid thirties and physically quite fit, though her white hair that hung partway down her back made her appear to be older. She didn't appear to be very happy that someone was at the door this late, and her voice was cold as she answered the door. "Can I help you?"

In the little light that came from the entryway behind her, the woman could see very little of the man outside as he spoke. "I need to see Professor Xavier."

Great, either he hadn't noticed she was not happy someone was here, which was pretty dumb, or he didn't care, which was even dumber. "Do you realize that it's after 9:30?"

"I'm well aware of the time, and I do apologize for the lateness of my arrival, however I don't intend to leave this mansion until I've spoken to him, even if I have to wait until tomorrow morning."

There seemed to be a tone of confidence or cockiness in the man's voice, the woman couldn't tell which. For some reason, though his tone and his presence seemed to make her nervous and she didn't know why. "Why do you wish to see him?"

"I'm afraid that's between myself and him."

She realized suddenly that he was almost provoking her, trying to make her angry. Before she could respond any further, however, a new voice appeared, at least in her head. _Storm, bring him into the den. I will meet with him shortly._

The man scoffed as soon as the voice stopped, and Storm was suddenly wondering if the man had known of the instructions she'd been given. Putting the idea in the back of her mind she stepped aside to let him enter. "Come on in."

She did as she was asked and led him into the den. As she did so, she was able to get a better look at the man. The hood that he wore was actually attached to a sweatshirt that he was wearing underneath the black jacket. The sweatshirt itself was not black, as she'd first thought, but rather a fairly dark red color. His jacket, which he had begun to remove as they walked, was not leather, as it had first appeared, but rather some sort of synthetic material. The man had on some sort of black gloves, not winter ones, but ones that appeared to be used more for sports. He was wearing dark blue denim jeans and black and gray shoes, though she didn't recognize the brand. After a few seconds, she realized that the jeans were cut and torn in places and there were red stains, which she could only assume was blood, near many of them.

But it was his face, really, that surprised her the most. Despite the fact that it was quite dark outside, the man was wearing sunglasses. She could see brown hair coming from underneath the hood of the sweatshirt, it appeared that it hadn't been cut in a while, as it was long enough to partially cover the sunglasses. He also had a bit of a full beard, it had probably been about a week since he'd shaved.

"Can I take your jacket for you?" She was still quite cold in her tone, but had softened somewhat with the knowledge that the professor was on his way.

"No, thanks, I think I'll keep it with me. I don't know how long I'll be staying here." His face showed little emotion, and she wasn't sure what exactly he was thinking.

"All right. I'm going to go see if I can find the professor." She turned and fairly quickly strode from the room leaving the man to sit down in one of the couches. He folded his arms over his chest, and to anyone looking at him, he appeared to be sleeping.

A few minutes later the professor and Logan came into the room from an entryway behind where the man was sitting. They were both surprised, though Logan was more than Charles, when the man began to speak without even turning his head. "Hello, Professor. It is nice to finally meet you in person." He paused a second before adding, "I see you brought a bodyguard with you. I suppose I can't blame you, though I didn't come here for a fight."

Charles didn't respond immediately, as he wheeled himself around so that he sat facing the man, looking at him and studying him. He tried to enter the mystery man's mind, but found himself unable to do so, though for some reason he didn't find that surprising. "You are the one I've been tracking?"

The man smiled slightly at Xavier's statement. "Yes, I am. Though, your tracking hasn't been extremely successful, has it." Charles frowned at having his failure pointed out to him, but before he could say anything the man continued speaking. "As you are obviously aware, and as I assume you've told him, I am a mutant. Also, you have probably guessed by now at least part of my mutation."

Charles nodded, but Logan was the one to speak this time. "You're a telepath, aren't you?"

"Among other things, yes." Although they couldn't see it for the tint in the glasses, the man's gaze had gone from Charles to Logan as he spoke. "And it appears, at least from what I've seen..." He pointed to his head as he spoke. "That you and I have somewhat similar pasts."

Now Charles spoke again. "What exactly are you doing here? What do you want from us?"

The man stood up and started pacing around in front of the couch for a few seconds before he spoke. "In a word, I'd like refuge. Asylum. Call it what you want, but for the last four years I've been running and to be perfectly honest I'm quite sick and tired of it." As he spoke his voice got a little more angry and with the anger a faint accent appeared. Charles recognized it as British, but he couldn't place it any more specifically than that. He noted that it seemed as if the man speaking hadn't noticed the change in his voice.

"Who are you running from?" Charles was curious as much as anything at this point. He honestly had no idea of where the man before him had come from, and that concerned him greatly. Apparantly, the question was not what the man had expected as he stopped dead in his tracks for a second before turning around to face Charles and Logan once again.

"They have no name, they only refer to themselves as 'The Organization.' They are a Black Ops military group based in Europe and led by an American general. Twenty years ago, while my family was on vacation in Switzerland, I was kidnapped by agents of this group. For the next fifteen years, I was experimented on and trained as a soldier and assassin. Five years ago, I found out about their true purpose and rebelled against them. They have hunted me ever since."

Charles' look of concern changed to one of almost pity as th man started his tale, then changed to one of fear as he asked a question to which he could almost guess the answer already. "What is their true purpose?"

The man sighed as he sat back down in the couch where he had been when his companions had entered the room. He removed his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes tiredly before answering that question. "They seek to remove all mutants from the population. And they're using mutants to do it."

He opened his eyes after saying this and both Charles and Logan gasped as he did so, as much to their surprise, his eyes were glowing. The man must have realized this as he groaned softly and blinked his eyes rapidly a few times and the glowing disappeared. He then chuckled slightly before commenting, "The only part of my mutation that I cannot control. It is why I always wear these." He put the sunglasses back on and sighed once more before speaking again. "I don't even know why my eyes glow, according to one of the doctors that helped fix me, it is a side effect of the alterations."

Charles was the first to recover from his shock at what he'd seen and heard, and thus was the one who asked first. "What do you mean by 'alterations?'"

"The Organization performed genetic experiments on humans, turning them into mutants, and on mutants in an attempt to increase their abilities. I was kidnapped young enough that I hadn't yet begun to show any signs of being a mutant, so I was considered human. Apparantly, they altered my genetic code to give me psychic powers. Unfortunately for me, I did have a natural mutation, and once it kicked in, the two powers grew into conflict with each other. I had to live for over ten years that way because the Organization either couldn't or wouldn't fix the problem that this created. After I broke free from my captors, I realized that the conflict in the powers was killing me and sought help from someone I believed I could trust."

Even with the sunglasses, it was obvious that he was crying at this memory, as tears started to flow out the sides. As he continued speaking, the accent reappeared. "It took them almost six months to figure out what the Organization had done to me. In the end though, they did fix me up, but in doing so they also acquired the attention of that bloody Organ-." He stopped short, the sadness he had almost instantly replaced by anger as he silently cursed himself before continuing, without the accent. "Sorry about that. Since I've been on the run I've been forced to pick up several accents to blend in with those around me. Unfortunately, sometimes even when I don't want to use one, it'll slip in there."

Logan took the opportunity to speak up once again. "So you're not really from Europe then?"

The man laughed lightly at Logan's question. "No, I was born in the Midwest, and spent the first few years of my life there. My dad was a retired soldier, and he was actually working as a personal security consultant. It's too bad that I don't remember a whole lot about that time."

Charles spoke up once again. "Well, I think we can let you stay here for a little while, at least. That is, if you'll agree to a few conditions."

"Name them."

"First, I'd like to get a complete physical of you. Blood work, urine sample, complete DNA profile, everything. Second, I'd like you to be available if I have further questions for you. To be honest, I don't think I've ever seen or heard anything quite like your story, so I may have more questions once I've been able to process all you've told me."

"That will be no problem. I have nowhere else to go, sir."

"Very well, then. This is Doctor Henry McCoy. He's also known as Beast, for obvious reasons." The professor pointed behind the man who turned around and came face to face with a blue furred man who was just a little shorter than himself, but appeared to be much stronger. "He is the staff doctor, and he'll be taking care of the exams. Hank, if it's not too much trouble, could you let him stay in your lab tonight? We don't have another room made up, and it's too late to try to make one now."

"No problem, Professor. If you would come this way please." Hank motioned for the man to follow him as he walked out of the room. Before he could get too far though, Charles had one more question for him.

"I apologize, but I didn't get your name."

The man stopped and turned around, looking at Charles and Logan with a small smile on his face "My name's John." He paused for a second before adding, "Kerogi." He then turned and followed Beast out of the room.

_A/N: Well, that's chapter 1, I'm going to try to post one chapter per week, but I can't guarantee anything. Next chapter will mostly be John getting tested by Hank._


	2. Medical

_A/N: Well, here's chapter two of the story. A few notices before you start reading, however. First, I don't speak a word of German, or any other languages but English (and a little Spanish), so the translations in this chapter, and all the other chapters where they are needed, are courtesy of Google Translate. These translations will appear at the end of the chapter in italics. The number in parenthesis will correspond to the translation number at the end of the chapter. If there are any errors, please let me know and I'll correct them._

_Second, after this chapter, the ratings will probably be going up. Chapter 3 is going to have some somewhat graphic violence, and chapter 4 will have a LOT of blood in it. That is why I might have to rate this story M before I'm done._

_I think that's all I need to say, so lets get on with the story, huh?_

_Oops, almost forgot the disclaimer: I own nothing but my O/C and the storyline. (Do I really need to put that in every chapter?)_

**Chapter 2 - Medical**

The elevator doors opened and Hank and John walked out. The hallway here was silver metal, as were most of the basement levels. John looked down the hall both ways before following the doctor to the right. Halfway down the hall, Hank opened a door on the left side. "Come on in."

John entered the room, and was followed by Beast. Looking around, he realized that this wasn't much of a lab, and Hank probably guessed that thought. "This is just a waiting area. The actual lab is through here." He walked through a set of double doors that swung both ways. Again, John followed him, taking in everything he was seeing. The room he was now in was actually another hallway. To the left, he noted, was two rooms with their doors open. He assumed these were typical exam rooms or hospital rooms. To the right, which the hallway was much longer in this direction, were several doors, many of them with signs on them. Those would be the more hi-tech areas of the lab. Hank led John to the left, and to the room on the left of the hall.

As he entered this room, John noticed that it appeared to be more of a surgical room than a hospital room. The operating table was in the middle of the room with a light fixture hanging overhead. Various monitors were plugged in but not turned on, though the table itself looked more like a normal bed than a surgery bed. John looked at the room nervously. "You know, the last time I was in a room like this they were giving me gene therapy." He shuddered at the memory, it was a painful and unpleasant one.

"I'll try to make this one go better than that one did. Here, change into this, if you would, please." Hank handed him a hospital gown. "You can leave your underwear on, but everything else needs to be taken off. You're going to get x-rays and an MRI done on you tonight."

"All right. I've been in hospitals enough to know about those. They aren't what I'm concerned about." John said as took the gown and began to take his clothes off.

Meanwhile, whether John was aware or not, on the other side of the mirror that made up the far room of the chamber, two people were watching. "You sure it's safe for him to stay here, Chuck?" Logan asked.

"It's as safe for him to be here as it was when you first arrived." Despite the vote of confidence, Logan knew that something was still troubling the professor. As they continued to watch, they found themselves both surprised for the second time that night. Charles could only voice what Logan was thinking "Oh my God."

A couple hours later, John had been taken to the other end of the lab and had a full body x-ray and a full body MRI scan. Now he was laying down in the surgical bed and Hank was getting some supplies from various cabinets in the room. "Lets see, we'll need about five vials of blood, a skin sample, a hair sample, a urine sample, and......... oh...."

"What is it?"

Hank looked at his patient with a little bit of sadness in his eyes. "One of the things I'm going to need is a bone marrow sample. I'll need to take it from your hip bone. I'm going to need to give you a sedative in order to do that."

"No, you won't. I don't need a sedative. And no offense, but I don't trust you enough to let you drug me. Besides, I want to have a clear head."

"You will most certainly need a sedative, taking bone marrow is NOT like taking blood, I'll be drilling into your bone and drawing material out of it."

"Yes, I know. I have an extremely high tolerance for pain. And besides, I'm refusing the drugs, so you really can't force me to take them unless my life depends on it."

Beast laughed a little bit at his comment. "No, you're right, I can't. However, I can say that the marrow will be the last thing we do, and I will have a sedative ready in case it's needed."

John smiled at Hank."Thanks, Doc."

On the other side of the glass, Logan and the Professor were still watching. Logan was surprised at the conversation in the lab. "He's not taking a sedative? Is he crazy?"

"I don't think so. He obviously is no stranger when it comes to suffering, but I don't think he knows exactly what it is he's in for." John looked at the mirror as Charles finished his statement, and both men suddenly remembered about his ability and that he was very much aware of their presence in that room.

"All right, John, while I'm getting the samples I need, I'm going to be monitoring your brain waves and heart rhythms, all right?"

"That's fine with me, as long as I don't have to get my head shaved." John and Beast both laughed at his comment.

Hank then set to putting the sensors on John's head and chest and hooking up the wires. The whole process took about five minutes, and a few more minutes to get the machines running. However, when the brainwave machine began to work, it appeared to be receiving interference. John, having removed his sunglasses when he changed clothes, looked up at the monitor. "Oh, sorry about that." As he spoke, the interference cleared up and the monitor began working normally. As Hank gave him a confused look, he replied. "The electrical impulses that my brain processes when I'm using my telepathy can sometimes interfere with machines like this. I'm just used to constantly being aware of my surroundings beyond what I can see that sometimes I forget that in cases such as these, I can't use that ability."

"Oh, that's good to know, I suppose." Hank then set to work applying the rest of the sensors.

Once he was done, Hank began getting samples, the urine one having been gotten before John had been hooked up. Beast was a little surprised that John didn't flinch at all when he stuck him with the needle to draw his blood. After getting five small vials of the red liquid, Beast withdrew the needle. "I think I can honestly say that other than Logan, I don't know if I've ever seen anyone that didn't have any reaction at all to needles."

"I'm used to them." John smirked at the doctor, in an attempt at trying to ease his somewhat obvious nervousness about the proceedings.

Beast seemed to think about this statement for a few seconds before replying. "Yes, I suppose you probably are, judging by your condition." Now he smirked at his patient as John's smirk faded into a bit of a scowl at being reminded of his painful past. Before he could respond, though, Beast continued. "Well, now its going to get worse, I need a skin sample. Just a small patch from your arm will be enough. It won't even leave a scar and in four or five days, it will be completely healed."

John scoffed a little at Hank's comments."It will barely take one day, Doc." Hank paused for a second, scalpel already in hand, at John's comment, before smiling and beginning to cut into his upper arm. John hissed in pain and tensed up slightly, but after a couple seconds relaxed and didn't give any further reaction to Beast as he went about his work with his small knife.

Beast was extremely impressed with John's indifference to the damage he was doing. He wasn't cutting very deep, just enough to take the skin and not cutting into the muscles or nerves, so it wasn't nearly as painful as it could have been, but to have almost no reaction to it, especially without being numbed up first, he didn't even know if Logan could have done that.

After about a minute of cutting, Hank slipped away with the scalpel, placing the tissue he'd removed in a petri dish he'd brought specifically for that purpose. He then returned to John and bandaged up the quite bloody wound. When he was done, he looked at John, the only thing on his face was a look of concern. "The only thing we have left to do now is the marrow. Before I begin, I'm going to once again recommend that you take a sedative. This is going to hurt quite a bit more than what you've had so far."

"I'm not going to need it, Hank." John's confidence didn't completely abate Hank's worry. Hank had had bone marrow drawn from himself once, and even with the sedative he had been given it was probably the most painful thing he'd ever experienced. Beast shot a look back at the mirror, knowing that the professor was still there, watching, asking without asking whether he should take John at his word. From the other side of the glass, the professor's equally silent response was given. _You can't force him to take it. You'll have to trust him._

Beast then grabbed the needle and John for the first time was able to see how big it actually was. Upon seeing it, John did something he hadn't done in quite a long time, he started second guessing himself. However, his doubts were quickly overcome by his pride and self confidence, and he nodded to the blue-furred man to continue.

Sighing, Hank looked back at John and muttered a short silent prayer before forcefully sticking the needle into John's hip. Immediately John's eyes rolled back in their sockets before closing as his entire body tensed up, his heart rate increasing dramatically as the brain monitor completely scrambled due to a sudden increase in the target's brain activity. At the same time, in the watching area, Xavier screamed and grabbed his head in immense pain. Logan recognized right away that John was projecting the pain he was in and the Professor was receiving it as if it was happening to himself. There was nothing he could do, however, other than watch the scene unfold around him.

Hank watched John's heart rate as it continued to climb. _100, 110, 120... If it increases much more, he'll go into cardiac arrest._ Hank took his hand off of the syringe in John's hip and grabbed another along with the sedative he'd prepared. He filled the syringe as full as he could and prepared to jab it directly into John's heart, knowing that it was the only way to calm it down fast enough to keep him alive. Before the needle could come close enough to John's chest, however, a hand reached out and grabbed his wrist and held him still. Hank looked at the hand in surprise, realizing quickly that it belonged to John. A few seconds after grabbing Beast's arm, John's heart rate began to return to normal and his body started to relax. After about a minute, John opened his eyes once again.

"OK, that hurt a lot more than I thought it would." he said, smiling at the Doctor as he let go of his wrist. He looked around the room for a few seconds before adding. "Sorry about that, Professor."

Logan, on the other side of the mirror, couldn't suppress the slight chuckle that came at John's apology. When he looked at his companion, however, he suddenly became concerned again. Charles was no longer holding his head in pain, but he was breathing very heavily, and obviously hadn't recovered from the shock of John's actions as quickly as the younger man had. However, Charles sent a silent note of acceptance toward John before turning to his friend. "I'll be all right, but I think I'm going to need to lay down until morning." Turning himself around, he left the room as Logan watched before the latter turned back to the operating room.

"Are you all right, John?" Beast was concerned as well, though he had no idea what had happened to the Professor.

"I will be. So will Charles. Give me a minute, then go ahead and take what you need." Beast looked at his patient confused for a second before John pointed to his head. Then the mutant doctor realized what had happened and his expression softened slightly.

"He felt your pain, didn't he?"

"Yes. I can usually contain it within myself, but when I'm tired like I am right now, my barriers are weaker and sometimes I will project stronger emotions, like pain." John sighed and looked away from Hank before continuing. "I should have been smarter than that. I should have warned him."

"He knew it was a possibility, being this close to you."

"Still, I don't like him suffering for me." He looked at Hank for a second, then down at the needle still embedded in his side. "OK, you can continue whenever you're ready."

Hank sighed himself, then took the syringe and pulled out the marrow he needed. John hissed in pain again, but didn't tense up as much as he had before. Hank realized he must have been mentally preparing himself for the pain that was to come while they were talking. After filling the syringe, he pulled the needle out of John's hip and quickly bandaged it up. "All right, that's everything I need. Unfortuantely, we don't have a room ready upstairs for you, so you'll have to stay in this room tonight. I suppose I should mention to you that because this is a lab and hospital area, there are security cameras in this room and most of the other rooms on this floor. Although, by now you've probably already realized that."

"I was aware. It's not a problem. Fact is I'm used to being monitored all the time, though it has been a while." John tried to get off of the table, forgetting that he was still hooked up to all the monitoring devices until they pulled at him and he fell back against the side of the steel table he'd been laying on.

"John! Are you all right?" Beast was moving over to help his patient quickly for someone his size, but John was already picking himself up off the ground by the time he got to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Forgot about these." He pointed to the various patches on his body. "And my leg is killing me right now."

"Well, I'm done monitoring you, I have all the data I need, so we can remove those, if you'll get back onto the table for a minute." Beast helped him back onto the table, and began removing the devices. "Where were you trying to go, anyway?"

"The restroom, other than peeing in that cup for you, I haven't had a chance to use one since I got off the plane this afternoon."

Several thoughts ran through Hank's mind, as they did Logan in the next room. Hank however, was the only one capable of asking them out loud, however. "You would have had to have landed in New York City if you came from Europe as Charles suggested. How did you get here from there?"

John looked at him for a few seconds, not wanting to answer that question, eventhough he knew it would be asked eventually. "I have my ways. Maybe tomorrow, I'll tell you, but for now, I'm tired." He noticed that Hank had finished undoing all the patches and monitors, and got back off the table. "I'm going to use the restroom, then I'm going to try to get some sleep."

"All right. My room is at the other end of the hall. If I'm not there, I'll be in another part of the lab probably, should you need anything."

"Thanks." John bowed slightly, then turned and limped from the room. Logan, realizing that nothing else would be happening that he needed to be present for, removed himself from his isolation and went to bed himself.

A slight noise, a puff of smoke, and a sudden smell of brimstone signaled the arrival of a certain mutant the next morning. He had heard of a mysterious stranger arriving at the mansion the night before, and was anxious to meet this person. He'd teleported himself into the watching room Logan and Charles had been in the night before. As he looked into the surgery room, he noticed a Caucasian man with fairly long brown hair laying on the surgical table, his eyes closed and his arms crossed over his chest and covered from the shoulders down by a sheet. If the mutant didn't know better, he'd swear the man in the other room was dead.

Another small sound, almost a thudding noise, was heard, once again accompanied by smoke and brimstone, as the mutant disappeared from the room he was in and appeared on top of the light fixture in the surgical room. From this vantage point, he realized he could get a better view of the newcomer. He was quite startled when the man began to speak.

"A blue skinned man who is not the Doctor? You a relative or something?"

The mutant was speechless for a minute, but recovered enough to finally speak. "No, we aren't related." He analyzed the situation for a minute, before adding. "You haven't opened your eyes, how did you know I was here or what I look like?"

"I smelled you when you teleported in. As for your look, I'm pretty sure you've heard about my abilities by now."

"Ja, I've heard you're psychic."

"Among other things, yes." John paused for a second. "You might want to come down from there. The support you're leaning on is loose."

"Vas?" The blue mutant tensed up slightly and in doing so inadvertently leaned even more on the support John had mentioned. It creaked and gave slightly, causing the mutant to scream a little and teleport down to solid ground. "How did you know that?"

"I heard it last night." John finally opened his eyes, and much like Charles and Logan the night before, the blue mutant was shocked to see them glowing faintly. John realized this and blinked a couple times, the glow dissipating and his eyes returning to normal. He was finally able to see the blue man in better detail.

The man was indeed blue skinned, however unlike Hank, his skin didn't appear to be very hairy, at least not what John could see. He had long black hair, almost to his shoulders. His clothes were more or less typical of a teenager, khaki pants with a white t-shirt and a brown flannel shirt over it. He had a blue tail swaying behind him and only three fingers on each hand, John noticed. He smiled at the unexpected company and held out his hand. "I'm John."

The mutant took his hand and shook it eagerly. "Kurt Wagner."

The way he said the name struck something in John's memory. After a minute, John spoke again, though, this time, not in English. "Du bist der Zirkuskunstler als Nightcrawler bekannt?"(1)

"Vas? Sie Sprechen Deutsch?"(2)

"Enough to get by on simple conversations. I'm by no means fluent." John sat up and got out of bed. Walking past Kurt to his clothes, which were still sitting on the chair he'd placed them on the previous night. As he did so, he couldn't help but hear Kurt's gasp. He stopped suddenly. He knew what Kurt had seen, it was the same thing that the others had noticed last night.

Kurt had watched John as he passed and noticed that his back was covered with scars. Kurt had tried to count them, but there were so many and they intersected so much he lost count at twenty, but he had to guess there were at least twice that. There were also a few scars on the back of his legs, including one that looked like it had run completely from the back of his left knee almost all the way down to the ankle.

"Mein Gott. What happened to you?"

John removed the gown that had covered him and placed the blue t-shirt he'd worn the previous day on before turning to Kurt and answering simply. "Sins of my past. The pain of these scars has long since left me." He smiled, but Kurt could tell he was embarrassed about them.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"I know." John grabbed the jeans and sat down in the chair to put them on. "My past isn't something I'm comfortable talking about, at least not in detail. Maybe some day I can tell you and the others about it, but not today." John finished with his pants and put on the socks and shoes that were on the floor where he'd discarded them before standing up and walking back toward Kurt.

Kurt stepped aside, suddenly a little frightened of the newcomer as he was suddenly aware that if anything happened, he would be in deep trouble. John walked by him to the other side of the bed and picked something up, before turning back around to Kurt smiling. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, there is no need." He paused for a minute before adding. "Is it too early to get something to eat? I haven't had anything since I got off the plane yesterday."

Kurt smiled, as he suddenly remembered that that had actually been the reason he'd come down to the lab to begin with. "Ja, most of the others are already in the kitchen. Come on, I can introduce you to them!" Kurt turned and ran out the door, with John hot on his heels.

_Translations:_

_1. You're the circus performer known as Nightcrawler?_

_2. You speak German?_

_A/N: Well, another chapter done. Please leave feedback, whether positive or negative, it is appreciated! Also, I changed a few things on the summary and re-edited part 1 to take out a few spelling mistakes I noticed and add a couple of things I'd forgotten. I realized that this story is, or at least will be, more of a romance story to some extent, and calling it Sci-Fi was kinda repetitive, since it IS a comic book story. I also added Logan to the featured characters, since he will be a major player in this story. Next chapter should be fun, Kurt and John go for breakfast, and things get interesting for some of the characters._


	3. Breakfast

_A/N: OK, I lied. Sorry!!!!!! The breakfast part of this chapter ran a little longer than I thought it would, so the fight got pushed back to chapter 4 (and thus the bloodbath I teased in chapter 1 got pushed back as well). Oh well, maybe it'll be a blessing in disguise, I might be able to expand the fight a little bit._

_Also, I need to thank a couple of people who have been helping me with this story. First, Terri, because she is the one who let me ramble on about what I had gotten stuck in my head, then convinced me that I should write it down and publish it. Secondly, Digifanatic (who requests I call him Ian, though I'll probably forget), because he's been proofreading the chapters for me before I stick them on here. Both of them have also been my sounding boards as I throw ideas at them for this and future stories, so to them both I'd like to say THANK YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY STUPIDITY!!!!!!!!!!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men, and I probably never will, unless I somehow win the lottery...._

**Chapter 3- Breakfast**

Kurt led the way into the kitchen which also served as the dining room of the mansion. As he ran through the doorway, he suddenly yelped and teleported. John, running right behind him caught movement heading for him through Kurt's unexpected smoke screen and immediately went into a feet-first slide to avoid whatever it was coming at him. Kurt ended up on the other side of the dining room table, with two females John didn't know staring at him in surprise.

The first girl to speak was the shorter of the two. She had brown hair tied into a pony tail so that it barely came down to her shoulders. She was wearing a bath robe that was partially open, as it wasn't tied to well, and underneath John could see she had on a one-piece nightgown. "Geez, Kurt, sorry about that. Rogue and I were fighting over the last pancake and it just went flying!"

"Ja, it was a little surprising having a UFO coming at you inside your own kitchen, wasn't it?" Kurt wasn't looking at the girl, but rather behind her to the right. Both of them turned toward John, not having noticed until now that he was even there, since Kurt's teleport had grabbed their attention and John's slide was silent. John had taken the time of their distraction to recover from his slide and had picked up the offending breakfast food, and was now standing near the table, behind the one girl, and across the table from the other.

"Well, it wasn't what I expected to have happen first thing in the morning, that's for sure." John laid the pancake on the table and looked at both of the girls. "Uh, hi, I'm John." He held out his hand to the girl closest to him.

"I'm Kitty, Kurt's girlfriend." She shook his hand while nodding to the blue mutant across the table from her. "I guess you've already met him."

"Yes, he came down to say 'hi' a little while ago." John turned to the other girl and held out his hand, but the girl held hers up in front of her.

"I'm Rogue. Sorry, but my mutation prevents me from shaking your hand without protection." John noticed that most of Rogue's body was covered with clothes, but her hands and face were bare. Her hair was long and dark brown, with black streaks in it. In front of her hair was one white streak. She had put on black lipstick, and if she didn't have makeup on, she looked like she hadn't seen much sun in quite a while, which John found odd, considering she had a noticeable Southern accent. He was a little confused about her statement, but decided not to dwell on it as he looked around the table at the three standing before him. Before he could say anything else, however, Kurt spoke up.

"How come we're out of pancakes? There's usually more than enough to go around!" John picked up a note of disappointment in Kurt's voice, though he wasn't sure if anyone else had.

"We ran out of flour. Ororo said she was going to town today, we'll just add it to the list of stuff to pick up." Kitty was somewhat apologetic with her tone. Apparently, she knew Kurt was going to be upset about not being able to have pancakes.

"Well, if you have eggs, milk, and bread I can make us some French toast." John looked around as Rogue and Kurt looked at him a little surprised, but excited. Kitty, wasn't quite as enthusiastic.

"Sorry, I'm a vegetarian. I'll just have to make due with something else, I guess." Kitty walked over to the fridge and without opening the door reached her hand into it. After about thirty seconds, she pulled her hand out, along with a full loaf of bread. She turned around and noticed that John was looking at her a little funny. "What?"

"Nice trick you have there." John pointed at her arm, which cradled the bread as if it was a small baby. "I don't think I've ever heard of someone being able to do that."

Kitty suddenly realized what he meant and blushed lightly. "Oh, the phasing? Yeah, I do it sometimes without thinking."

John smiled at her and stepped around her to get to the refrigerator himself. He pulled out a box of eggs and a gallon of milk, before reading the milk label with an obvious look of surprise. "Soy milk? Ugh, no offense but I've had this before, and I'd rather not again."

Rogue laughed at John's comment before responding. "There should be some regular milk in the back on the bottom shelf. Sometimes we have to hide stuff to keep it from those who can't have it, for whatever reason."

Kitty gave Rogue a look at that comment before turning to Kurt and kissing him. "I'm going to go get changed to do yoga, see you later." She jogged from the room before anyone could say anything.

John watched her leave, then turned around back to the fridge. "So, where is everyone?"

"What do you mean?" Kurt was confused at the question.

"I thought there was quite a few students at the Institute, but it seems to be deserted." John noted as he grabbed the milk and shut the door.

Rogue laughed at John's comment. "It's Thanksgiving week, Darlin'. Everyone's gone home to see their families, at least those who could. Oh, and Scott and Jean are studying abroad in Europe."

John paused for a second, obviously thinking about the date. "Oh, yeah, your right, it is. It's been so long since I've been in the U.S. this time of year, I'd forgotten about the holiday." Rogue couldn't help but laugh at John's comments, and after a few seconds John and Kurt laughed as well. "Hey, either of you want cinnamon or anything mixed with the toast?"

Rogue shook her head, but Kurt spoke up. "Cinnamon sounds good to me."

"All right, then. Where is it?"

"It's up here, in this cupboard." Rogue stood up and started to walk to the pantry she'd indicated, but as she did so, she slipped. John reached out and caught her before she fell, and held her until she got her feet under her.

When he let go, though, her hand brushed against his arm, and suddenly John felt dizzy. He stepped back, and then leaned against the table, breathing heavily. "What.... the hell... was that?" John asked between breaths.

Kurt had realized what happened and was standing next to John to make sure he was all right. "Rogue's power. When she touches someone, she steals their life force and gains some of their memories. In the case of mutants, she also temporarily will gain their powers." He paused for a second, looking behind John. "Oh no."

John stood up and looked at Rogue. Her eyes were wide and glowing, and her mouth open, as if she was trying to say something, but no words were coming out. "Rogue?" John was concerned and when he called her name he got no response. "Kurt, get me some gloves or oven mitts or something, will you?"

"Ja, sure." Kurt found a pair of gloves and quickly gave them to John. "What's wrong with her?"

"Like you said, she took some of my memories. It doesn't appear she touched me long enough to completely drain my powers, but she does have some of it within her right now. What she's seeing, both from the memories that are now within her, and her sudden ability to read my mind, has sent her into shock."

John put the gloves on and turned his attention to Rogue once again. "Rogue? Can you hear me?" Once again, there was no response from the female mutant. Sighing, John realized he'd have to be more forceful with her. He grabbed her chin with his left hand, and her left hand with his right, forcing her to look at him as he guided her back into her chair. "Rogue, come on, snap out of it, will you?"

Once he finally got her to sit down, she seemed to become aware of what was happening around her. Tears began to fall as she blinked for the first time since she'd touched John. "John, I... God, I.... I'm sorry. I..."

"It's all right Rogue. I know what you saw. It happened a long time ago, and I've long since gotten over it." He hugged her and let her cry into his shoulder as Kurt watched them both with concern and confusion on his face. "The memories she steals, are they permanent?"

"No, like her borrowing your abilities, the memories are only temporary. Though, they tend to stay within her a lot longer than the powers will."

John turned his attention back to Rogue, who was still crying on him. "I'm sorry Rogue. What you saw nobody should see. If I could take those images away, believe me, I would. I don't want them in my mind, let alone someone else's."

The crying had calmed down now, Rogue was now more in control of her emotions, but it was quite obvious that the memories were still bothering her. "How could you...?" She couldn't even finish the thought.

"Honestly, I don't know the answer to that myself." Rogue sat back in her seat and rubbed the tears still on her face from her eyes. John smiled lightly at her. "Just be thankful that it wasn't you who actually went through that, all right?"

Rogue nodded and smiled lightly back at the newcomer before turning to Kurt. "So, how's the toast coming along anyway, Elf?"

"Vas?" Kurt was shocked and surprised at the sudden change in her emotions. Rogue and John couldn't help but laugh at the situation, and their laughter started Kurt laughing as well.

"'Elf', huh?" John stood up from where he'd been kneeling next to Rogue. "I'm going to have to remember that for later. Meanwhile, let's finish making breakfast, huh?" He turned back to the bowl and other items on the counter, and Kurt joined him, making some fresh eggs for the three of them to eat.

Meanwhile, completely unaware to the trio in the kitchen, they were being watched. In the third floor of the mansion, in Charles Xavier's private quarters, he sat at a monitor watching the live security feed along with Logan. "It appears there is a lot more to our guest than we had believed."

"Chuck, whatever it was that Rogue saw, I don't think I'm going to like what it means." Logan was scowling more than even he usually does. "I'm a little surprised that she didn't completely lose it like she did last time she was suddenly psychic."

"She didn't touch John for very long, John himself said his powers weren't completely drained, only weakened. It's possible he was using what power he retained to keep her from losing control. I wonder though, he said many times last night that his telepathy wasn't the only power he had. If that's the case, I wonder what else he's capable of."

"I have a few theories on that one, Professor." Beast had silently entered the private room. Both of the other men had been expecting him, though, so they weren't surprised he was there. "If I may, would you mind letting he have control of the computer for a minute?"

He pointed to the monitor the two had been watching. Charles moved his wheelchair out of the way and Beast began typing. After a few seconds, the image went from the security feed to the picture of a DNA strand. "This is our guest's DNA, I have found two different places where the strand has been cut and replaced with a different strand." He pressed a few keys and the strand slid down as if it was on a conveyor belt before stopping and a spot on the strand became highlighted. "The first one, here, I've seen a similar structure twice before, both times in people who had telepathy."

"Jean and myself." The professor was fairly certain what Beast was getting at.

"Yes. This portion of John's DNA was spliced into his existing genetic code. I can tell you two things just by looking at it. First, it was done when he was still young, probably soon after he was kidnapped. Second, whoever did this knew what they were doing, they were engineering John to be a psychic soldier." Logan growled slightly at this news, and Charles sighed quietly. "But, there's more. The splicing, it is much closer to Jean's DNA than it is yours."

"You don't mean..." Logan didn't like where this was going. The professor wasn't happy about it either, though he was more curious than angry.

"Yes, I do. There is a chance that John may have telekinetic abilities as well. Though, why he hasn't shown it yet, I don't know." Beast hit a few more buttons and again the strand slid around on the computer screen, before stopping with another spot becoming highlighted. "This area here, it was spliced as well. And the DNA splicing here is quite similar to a portion of DNA that you have, Logan."

"You mean...?" Logan wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, but he knew he'd find it out eventually anyway.

"Yes, I do. He has some advanced healing ability. As far as I can tell, this work was much more recent than the first. He said he was dieing, correct?"

"Yes, he said that the mutation he'd been given was interfering with his natural mutation that had appeared when he was a teenager. He said that when he realized what was happening, he went to a group of doctors who told him that the work that had been done previously hadn't been finished. They went in and finished it."

"That might explain a few things, then. His body was probably rejecting the splicing in favor of the natural mutation. But, in doing so, he was slowly killing off that section of DNA, and without it, his body would have started to shut down. This second splicing, if it is indeed a regeneration enhancement, would have stopped the breakdown of that DNA strand. I noticed that it does have some differences to yours, though, I don't believe it's as powerful." He clicked some more and another section of DNA was highlighted. "This is a section that I don't believe I have ever seen in this particular configuration before. I believe it is his natural mutation, but I don't know what ability it gives him."

"What the fuck does THAT mean, Beast?" Logan was barely containing his frustration now. This man they'd let into the mansion last night could potentially be more powerful than every other person on the campus, and now that he was here, it may not be possible to stop him, should anything happen.

"Language, Logan." Professor Xavier admonished his friend. "And calm down. He hasn't done anything yet, and we have no reason to suspect that he will."

"I still don't like it, Chuck. We don't know the extent of his abilities, or his intentions."

"I doubt he's hostile. If he was, he would have probably already struck." Charles knew it was going to be nearly impossible to get Logan calmed, but he had to try anyway. "If you are that concerned about him, maybe you should give him a test downstairs."

Logan caught his friend's meaning. "You want me to put him in the Danger Room? What program?"

"The standard training program will work. If you want to give him a challenge, maybe you should face him while the program runs."

Logan smiled at the idea. "All right, Chuck. You've got it. Me and him in the Danger Room. This should be fun." Logan turned and began walking away, but was stopped suddenly by Charles.

"You might want to wait a few hours so that he can recover from Rogue's influence. Besides, I'm pretty sure Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, and Ororo will all want to see this."

"All right, I'll let him know." Logan then left the room to the other two adults.

"Charles, you saw John's back. I can't imagine what he's been through, but I don't think Logan is going to scare him at all."

"No, he won't, Hank. Rogue acquired some of John's memories a little while ago, and she nearly passed out from the shock. Whatever happened to him, there isn't anything we can do that would be worse." He turned the monitor back to the security feed, and noticed that the three were just finishing up their breakfasts.

"That was pretty good, John. I'm impressed." Kurt smiled as he finished off his glass of orange juice.

"Thanks Kurt. Truthfully, it's been a while since I've had the opportunity to actually cook anything." John sighed as another old memory crossed his mind briefly. Shaking his head, he looked at Rogue, who was sitting across from the guys, her eyes closed. "Something wrong?"

"Huh?" Rogue opened her eyes and looked at the two. "Oh, no, I was just...... I think I can hear Evan."

"Evan? That's the name of the guy making all that noise this morning?" John smirked.

"There is no WAY you could hear him, he's in the third basement, you were in the first." Kurt wasn't buying for a second what John was trying to sell.

"No, not physically, anyway. But he's been down there grunting and panting and doing God knows what else since about six thirty."

Rogue and Kurt looked at each other and at the same time responded. "Skateboarding."

John looked at them for a second, then shrugged. "To each their own, I guess. That's not my thing." He stood up and went to the sink to clean up his dishes. Rogue and Kurt both came over to help.

"Hey, now, you cooked, we can clean." Rogue smiled at him. Her eyes had quit glowing soon after she stopped crying, but it was obvious to John that his powers were still present within her. He smiled and stepped back, letting the younger two mutants do the work.

"Rogue, do you know how much longer you'll have my abilities?"

"Sorry, hon, I don't, but I'd say probably not much longer. They've weakened quite a bit already. Why do you ask?"

John pointed to his head. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been trying to help you keep control."

"I noticed. Thanks for that, but I think you can stop now."

"All right, if you insist." John closed his eyes for a second. Rogue stiffened a little bit, but then relaxed once again, and went back to helping Kurt with the dishes.

After about another ten minutes, everything was cleaned up and put away. Rogue waved at the two and disappeared in the direction of room John had met Charles in the night before. They sat there in silence for a few seconds before Kurt spoke up. "Hey, John, they didn't give you a tour last night, did they?"

"Huh? No, they didn't, it was pretty late when I got here, so the only things I've seen so far other than the den and kitchen is Beast's lab."

"Good, then I can give you the grand tour. Though, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show you everything in the basement levels."

"It's not gonna matter much, Elf." Kurt jumped and nearly teleported out of the room at the new voice behind them, but caught himself. They turned around and saw Logan standing in the doorway leading out to one of the halls.

"What's going on?" John wasn't sure he liked the smirk on Logan's face.

"Well, bub, you and me are gonna have a little skirmish downstairs in a couple hours."

"You're taking him to the Danger Room? This should be interesting!"

"Yeah, Elf, the two of us are gonna have a sparring contest, and you and the others are invited to watch, if you want."

"Vas? We get to see Logan in action? This will truly be a treat!" Kurt's sarcasm was evident even through his accent.

"Can it, Elf. Noon all right with you, John?"

"That's fine, Logan. See you then."

Logan grunted then turned around. He took two steps before stopping. "Oh, Kurt, for now, don't take him below the first basement."

"All right, no problem." Logan then continued walking away as Kurt turned back to John. "What was that about?"

John shrugged. "Beats me, but I guess I'm going to have to wait on a shower. Not that it matters, I have no clean clothes anyway."

"Actually, I'd go ahead and shower if I were you." Kurt waved his hand in front of his nose. "You smell like you haven't had one in a while."

"It has been a couple days, I don't really get many opportunities when I'm spending my nights in the wilderness."

"Vas? You sleep in the wilderness? Why?"

"I have my reasons." John wasn't going to elaborate on the subject, and Kurt let it go.

"You know, I think Scott has some clothes somewhere, maybe they'll fit you. Let's go ask Storm!" Before John could say anything, Kurt had grabbed him by the wrist and teleported them both to the greenhouse.

Storm was quite startled as Kurt and John appeared right in front of her, standing on some sort of flowering bush that she had just finished planting. "What is the meaning of this intrusion?"

"Sorry, Storm, but John needs a change of clothes and I thought that since Scott isn't around and they're about the same size, he could borrow a couple sets." Kurt suddenly realized that the weather goddess was scowling at him, and when he looked down, he yelped and jumped back, dragging John with him. "Sorry, I didn't know that was there."

Ororo sighed and stood up, eying both of them suspiciously. After a minute, she sighed. "Go ahead and show John where the showers are. I'll find a box of Scott's clothes and bring them up to your room, Kurt, since we still don't have one ready for John."

"All right, Storm. Danke!" Storm nodded and Kurt gabbed John and teleported again, this time to the second floor hallway.

John, for his part, was a little unsteady, he wasn't used to moving in this fashion. He staggered a little bit and leaned against the hallway. "Kurt, do me a favor. Next time you're going to teleport us, tell me, will you? I think if I have to do that any more, I'm going to see my breakfast again."

"Sorry, Mein friend." Kurt looked ashamedly at John. John smiled at him and pushed him lightly.

"It's all right. Come on, you said something about a tour?"

"Ja, we can start up here, I'll show you my room and the bathrooms so you can shower, then we can start the tour for real."

_A/N: Well, here's chapter 3, as always, feedback is appreciated. Next time, I SWEAR the Logan vs John fight will be on!_

_In response to the Reviews I've gotten: Buddy: What happened is that when I was putting my storyline for the series together, I realized during my research that some of the stuff I had happening wasn't consistent with the canonical versions. For the most part, the characters will be unchanged, though the powers may be altered slightly. I'll discuss it more when I get to the characters that I mean. (There are two by my count, and the first doesn't show up until the third story.)_

_Fanatic1229: Depending on the continuity, or the source you use, Kurt Wagner was either in a monastery or was a circus performer before being discovered by Charles. I'm going with circus performer, because it seems more likely, though I may mention him as having been in a monastery at some point, I'm not sure on that part._


	4. Duel with Logan

_A/N: Well, here we are, my first fight sequence. I hope you all like it. This chapter ended up being a little bit longer than I had wanted, and I almost split it up into two, but two things stopped me. First, the only way I could would be to put the entire fight as a separate chapter, which would leave chapter 4 with very little in it except stalling, and that would be boring. Second, I DID promise the fight would take place here, so here it is!_

_Also, I am getting to be borderline with the T/PG-13 and R/M ratings with this chapter, so I'll probably be re-rating this to be M when I post chapter 5 just to be on the safe side._

_Disclaimer, because I really don't want to get sued: I don't own X-Men. All I own is John and this storyline._

**Chapter 4 - Duel with Logan**

"Well, this is definitely not my style." John had showered, and even shaved off his beard, and returned to Kurt's room, where Storm had brought up a box of clothes that Scott had left behind when he went to Europe. The clothes did fit him quite well, but they were different than what he had been wearing. Currently, he had on a pair of gray khaki pants with a white collared shirt underneath a sky blue sweater. As he had with the other ten or so combinations of clothing he'd tried on, he was now standing in front of a full-length mirror Kurt had on his closet door. He'd looked at several other pieces of clothes and found that these were the closest to what he liked.

"Well, I don't think it looks that bad." Kurt was trying to help his new friend, but had grown somewhat frustrated by John's lack of enthusiasm about the missing mutant's taste in apparel.

"Not that bad? I look like Fred from fucking Scooby Doo! Besides, there's no WAY I can fight in this!" John threw up his hands and sighed, shaking his head as he turned from the mirror. He noticed suddenly a statue sitting on Kurt's desk. "Wouldn't have figured you for the religious type."

"Vas?" Kurt had been about to respond to John's comment about fighting and was surprised at John's sudden change in subject, but then realized what had gotten his attention. "Oh, well, despite everything, my parents raised me Catholic. So, I suppose it's God's will that I must endure my appearance, right?"

John looked over his shoulder, as he had his back turned to Kurt, and gave him a smirk. "I suppose we all must have faith in something."

Kurt couldn't help but smile at that comment. "And what is it that you have faith in?"

"I...." John had figured that that question would be coming as soon as he'd spoke, but even so, when it did, he found himself at a loss for a response. "You know, I'm not sure that that's not partially why I'm here. I think I lost my faith."

"You don't believe in God?"

John sighed. Religion wasn't exactly something he liked to discuss, he'd seen it start more problems than it solved. "I believe that there is something there, something that we can't possibly comprehend. If you wish to call it God, that is your choice. Personally, based on my experiences, I question that it is the same God you pray to. I don't consider myself religious, but I am at times spiritual."

"I didn't think you could be one without the other."

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I think you're thinking of a different form of 'spiritual' than I am. What I mean is that I try to be aware of things happening, things that even with my psychic abilities, I shouldn't be able to tell." He paused and sat down on the bed, as Kurt was sitting in a chair he'd pulled away from the desk. "It's also more internal. I can sense the anger and hatred in my heart, but I can also sense the hope there. I am also aware that the hope has been fading lately, and that revelation is somewhat troubling."

"You're losing your hope? Why?"

"I don't know." John sighed and closed his eyes again, laying back on the bed. "I've done a lot of bad things in the past, things that no matter how long I live, I can never make amends for. I accepted that idea long ago, but at the same time I resolved to do what I can to set things right. But lately, it seems that all I've done is make things worse." He opened his eyes and looked at Kurt. The blue mutant was taken aback by the obvious sadness in the older mans eyes. "I don't know what the future holds for me, I never have known, but I do know that wherever I go, it seems that pain and suffering follow."

Kurt was silent for quite a while, and John was sure that he was scared by the explanation. Finally Kurt spoke again. "So why did you come here then?"

"I thought that I could rest here, at least for a while. Those who have hunted me are based in Europe, and they aren't nearly as strong here. With any luck, I can hide for a while before going back and finishing what I started."

"And what did you start?"

John turned away from Kurt and got up off the bed with a heavy sigh. "You are probably safer if you don't know. It's my burden to bear, not anyone else's."

Kurt was hurt slightly by John's comments. "So, you came here looking for help, but when we offer it, you refuse?" John had no answer for that question, and both men knew it. John just sighed once again, and leaned against the wall. Kurt figured he was pondering the question that had been posed, but he wasn't going to get an answer, so he changed the subject. "I suppose I should get on that tour I promised you, ja?"

John looked at Kurt and smirked a little bit. "If it's not too much trouble." Kurt got up, and grabbed John's sunglasses, which he'd placed on the desk before going in to shower, and handed them to the older mutant before heading out the door.

"Well, obviously, the second floor here is where most of the student's rooms are. There are three bathrooms on this floor, as well, which I already showed you. You also already know about the elevator which takes you from the third floor down to the first basement, so I don't need to show you that.

"The third floor is similar to this one, except it has ten larger bedrooms, each one with their own private bathrooms, unlike the common bathrooms on this floor. Other than the Professor, Logan, and Storm, the upstairs rooms are reserved mostly for temporary guests, such as the parents of students, or other mutants that are just staying for a few days." Kurt was walking toward the elevator as he spoke, this wasn't going to be a grand tour by any stretch, it was almost eleven already, and they needed to be downstairs probably by 11:45 for John's duel with Logan.

The elevator came quickly, but when the two entered, they were a little surprised to see Charles already in it. Charles smiled as they entered. "You look better, John. Sleep well?"

"As well as can be expected, Professor." John was having trouble looking Charles in the eye, even though he was wearing his glasses. "I assume I have you to thank for the test today?"

"Actually, Logan suggested it, but yes, I am the one who authorized this fight. If anything else, consider it a training exercise, for both of you." Charles was lying about who proposed the idea, but he thought that it would get John worked up a little bit and make things more interesting during the fight.

"I assume there's a reason behind this, other than just trying to give Logan a way to blow off steam."

Kurt chuckled slightly at John's comment. The way John had said it, it was almost as if he'd expected Logan to not be a problem for him. He stopped quickly, though, when he realized that the professor had apparently either ignored the comment or was actually agreeing with it.

"Actually, there is another reason. Logan pointed out that we have no idea the extent of your abilities, and he's anxious to see what you can do. To be perfectly honest, I'm curious myself. Your DNA is quite intriguing."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened on the first floor, where Kurt and John exited. Before the doors shut, John bowed to the professor slightly. "Well, I guess all will be revealed soon enough, then." Anything Charles was going to say was cut off by the doors closing as John then turned his attention back to Kurt, who was looking at him somewhat surprised.

"You don't honestly think you can beat Logan, do you? He's got more experience than anyone alive, including you!"

"All the experience in the world sometimes isn't enough to counter ability. Logan's right, they don't know what I'm capable of, and to some extent that's a good thing. That said, I have no problem showing them what I can do." Kurt stared at him for a second before shrugging and continuing to give him the tour he'd promised him.

In the first floor basement, an elevator door opened, and Charles exited. He wheeled himself down to a door near the end of the hallway on the right side. Entering it, he smiled slightly as he saw he wasn't the only one there. "I take it you're ready, Logan?"

"As ready as I'll ever be, Chuck." Logan didn't seem nervous, but the professor knew that the unknown that was John was definitely keeping the feral mutant on edge. "You know it's going to be hard for me to go 100% on him, even if he can heal, I don't want to run the risk of accidentally killing him."

Charles chuckled a little at his friend's statement. Logan looked at him curiously, he answered the unspoken question. "I just saw John. His attitude is similar, he thinks he's going to beat you easily." Logan growled a little at that statement. Charles knew that the Canadian would probably be more aggressive now than he would have been before, but he was smart enough to know that Logan could probably control himself enough to avoid any serious damage.

"Well, I have a surprise for him. Been working on a version of our training program, so it can be used for us to do this duel in." Logan pointed into the currently empty room that was on the other side of the window behind the computer he had been sitting at. "I made the difficulty a bit higher than normal, and the patterns less distinguishable."

"That's good, Logan, but you should probably start off easy, and without the simulation running."

"Planned on it, bub. Thats why I want you to be running the controls up here."

Charles smiled and nodded. "All right, I can do that. You'd better go get yourself changed, you're supposed to start in forty-five minutes."

"Yeah, I know, I'm going." Logan started to leave but stopped as he got to the door. "You may want to get John something decent to wear for this. If he's currently borrowing Cyclops' clothes, it's not going to be easy for him to compete."

"I'm well aware of that, and I'll see that it's taken care of." Logan then left the room, and Charles turned his attention to the computer before him, making some changes to the program Logan had been working on. He also telepathically sent a message to Kurt. _Make sure John gets a change of clothes for his fight. There should be some clean clothes in the locker room outside the door to the Danger Room._

At 11:45 Kurt and John were outside the sliding doors that lead into the Danger Room. John had once again changed clothes, and was now wearing a gray sweatshirt with matching sweatpants. The shirt had the X-Men logo in blue on the right side of the chest, but other than that, there was nothing remarkable about them.

The two entered the room, and John looked around in awe. The room was almost perfectly round, at least a football field in diameter, by his estimation, and two stories tall. The entire room was white, and looking around you could almost get the feeling of vertigo. Fortunately, the entire room seemed to be set up on a grid-like format, with lines evenly spaced vertically and horizontally across the floor, walls, and ceiling. Two-thirds of the way up, on his right side, was a window, through which he could see Storm, Rogue, and the Professor. John gave them a small wave as he walked into the center of the room, before turning to Kurt. "Wow, this place is...... different."

"Ja, I almost got sick the first time I was in here." Kurt pointed to the lines that ran around the room. "The entire room is designed to create solid holograms that you can interact with. You can program almost any terrain within the computer, and it can be faithfully recreated on here, right down to the freezing cold of the snow and the searing heat of fire."

John noticed that Kurt had something else to add, but he appeared reluctant to do so. Thankfully, Logan entered at this time, and Charles began speaking over the intercom into the room. "Kurt, if you would please come up here." Kurt nodded and teleported out of the room, then the Professor turned his attention to the combatants. "John, this is your first time in here, but don't worry about damaging anything. The walls are designed to absorb all sorts of energy, and physical damage can easily be repaired. The two of you will start out without any programs running, but I will be starting a standard training simulation after a few minutes. The training simulation will be using non-lethal energy weapons. These weapons will still hurt you, and probably stun you if you get hit enough, so do be careful. Also, once the program begins running, the terrain will change to one I developed myself."

Logan glanced at the window with a scowl at the unexpected addition, but knew better than to say anything. He instead turned his attention to his opponent, who was standing about fifteen feet away, and got into a fighting stance to match John's.

Without warning, Logan lunged at John, but John was able to block the right hook that Logan tried to catch him with. The younger mutant ducked a left cross, and as he did so, he caught Logan in the gut with a right of his own, then a left to Logan's jaw. As Logan staggered from the strikes, he spun around and caught John with the back of his hand, sending John reeling back as well. As the two men recovered from this initial volley, the same thing ran through both of their minds. _Damn, this guy is stronger than I thought! _John smirked at his counterpart as they both got back into their stances.

Up in the control room, Charles and Storm were expressionless, but the three teens were almost anything but. Kitty was in shock. "John just took Logan's best shot and not only is he still standing, but he's _smiling_ at him?"

Rogue was surprised, but for a different reason than Kitty. "John's faster than I would have guessed. And from what I saw this morning, it's going to take a lot more than one punch from anyone to knock him out."

Kurt was actually not surprised at all. With what he'd seen, he honestly didn't know if Logan was going to be able to win this fight, but he did have to admit, Kitty was wrong about one thing. "Then again, that wasn't Logan's best shot either. They're just testing each other right now. Oh, they've started again."

Logan once again had been the aggressor, and John was staying on the defensive, and backing up as he did so. After several shots of Logan's were blocked or dodged, John suddenly grabbed Logan's right arm, and spun himself around, dragging Logan around with him. Although Logan managed to keep his feet, he was knocked off balance by his opponent's sudden shift, and when John spun around with a roundhouse kick to Logan's unprotected jaw, he couldn't stop himself from sprawling on the ground.

Logan picked himself up and quickly got back into his stance, a small amount of blood could be seen coming from his mouth. John figured he'd probably knocked out a tooth, but he was aware that it would also probably grow back pretty quickly. Logan smiled at John this time. "Well, I have to admit, I'm impressed. You used my aggressiveness against me. Congratulations. But let's see if your offense can rival your defense, bub."

John smirked at Logan, and without a word launched into a series of attacks. Logan was able to block the overhand right, as well as the left that followed it. He jumped over an attempted foot sweep, but John, as Rogue had realized, held the advantage in speed. As Logan was recovering from the jump, he got caught with an uppercut to the chin that knocked him back a couple steps. He was able to deflect the side kick that John attempted to follow up with, and John dodged out of the way of Logan's retaliatory right hand by stepping back himself. No sooner had his foot landed from the step, however, when he launched another roundhouse kick at Logan, this time aiming for his abdomen. Logan blocked this one as well, and managed to grab John's foot. Before he could do anything with it, John used Logan's grip as a step to kick the older mutant in the face with a variation of an uppercut kick. Logan was sent sprawling on his back as John flipped in the air and landed on his hands and knees about fifteen feet away.

Inside the control room, Storm and Charles were impressed with what they were seeing. They knew, that the fight was just starting, but even so, John's skill was much better than they'd anticipated. The students watching behind them were cheering and shouting at each other, arguing over who would win.

_Holy shit, this guy's faster than he looks. _Logan was getting frustrated with the way things were going, and he knew he needed a second to calm back down. He laid on the ground for a few seconds before picking himself up and standing in front of John once again. "All right, bub, time to take the gloves off."

Charles took that line as a cue and started the simulation. The white walls of the room dissolved into what appeared to be some sort of indoor structure. Several catwalks crisscrossed the middle of the room now, and several walls appeared in various places, forming a two-story maze of sorts. Machinery could barely be heard activating, and John realized that the energy weapons that the Professor had mentioned earlier were now active. He gave Logan a smirk and got back into his stance. "You know, Logan, I couldn't agree more."

No sooner had the words left John's mouth and he charged at Logan, aiming directly for his face with a right hand. Logan was caught by surprise by John's speed, and was forced off balance as he blocked the right. Thankfully for him, his momentum was sending him backward, and because he just barely missed a left uppercut. Even so, Logan could have sworn that he could feel energy coming off of John's fist as it went by his face. John kept up the assault however, and Logan found himself continuing to fall back under the pressure until his back was against a metal wall.

John swung one more time with his right hand, and Logan rolled to his left, hearing a metallic thud as John's fist hit the wall instead. As the mutant known as Wolverine got to his feet, he extended the claws on both hands, but stopped himself from attacking as he looked at his opponent. John had hit the wall with a closed fist, but instead of recoiling in pain, his fist was still against the wall, as if nothing had happened. Upon looking a second time, Logan noticed that the fist wasn't directly against the wall, it was a little less than half an inch from it. It was then that he realized what had happened. "So, it's true, you DO have telekinesis."

John smirked at Logan and dropped his hand to his side and smirked at Logan. "Well, it appears that Hank is smarter than I'd given him credit for, though he's not quite accurate in his assumption. Besides, I'm still just warming up." As he said this, a metallic whirring could be heard throughout the area, obviously, the weaponry that Charles had mentioned was powering up.

"Looks like this room's just getting warmed up too, bub." Logan smiled back at John. As he spoke, numerous identical guns came out of the walls and aimed for both men. John groaned softly as he realized that the fight would have to be put on hold while they dodged the weaponry's projectiles.

Both men took off running in opposite directions as the guns began to fire lasers at them. They were able to avoid most of the shots, but still occasionally would get hit by a gun appearing out of nowhere and firing too close to them.

After about three minutes of running blindly around the maze-like structure, John noticed that the lasers were becoming less common. _They must be able to only fire so much before needing to recharge._ Eventually, there were no more laser cannons firing, and John paused for a second to get his bearings. He realized, using his telepathic abilities, that Logan was doing the exact same thing about halfway across the arena. Neither man had been paying attention to where they were going, and they had gotten themselves lost in the maze. John looked up and noticed for the first time that there was a series of catwalks overhead. He ran at one of the metal walls, then jumped at it, kicking off and grabbing the bottom of the catwalk as he rebounded. After about a minute, he was able to pull himself up onto the walkway. From here, he could see the arena much better.

Up in the control room, the teens were excitedly discussing what they were watching. "Wow, John's even faster than Logan!" Kurt seemed genuinely surprised that someone could go toe to toe with the older mutant and survive it.

"Yeah, but what did he say about telekinesis?" Kitty was a little confused, she hadn't seen what she normally associated with the ability. Rogue, for her part, was mostly silent, though she was watching the fight with much more interest than she normally would have. None of the three were aware of another presence in the room until he spoke up at their comments.

"John is right, what he's using isn't telekinesis, but it is something similar." Everyone turned to look at Dr. McCoy as he stood in the doorway, looking at the monitors. "I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that ability before."

Charles couldn't help but agree. "He's able to sense Logan's presence and location, even though he can't see him, and he's acting as if he's tracking him. It appears Logan may be doing the same thing, since they're heading for the same spot in the center of the arena."

"You think they're heading that way for a reason?" Storm was unconvinced that something else wasn't going on.

"Well, it is one of the most open areas in this set up, as I'm pretty sure John's already realized. I think that Logan is heading for John, and John's leading him to that area."

"But why, Professor? Wouldn't it be better for John to keep the fight in a tight area?" Kurt wasn't sure why John would opt for an open area rather than the somewhat tight space they were fighting in earlier. John was holding his own with Logan in that exchange, which was something Kurt wasn't sure if he'd ever seen before.

"John said himself, he's just getting started. He still has some tricks for Logan." This was the first time Rogue had spoken in quite a while, it surprised everyone as they had almost forgotten that she was even there.

"Indeed, Rogue, John is setting Logan up, though I'm not sure what for." Charles turned back to the monitor, and realized that Logan had entered the open area that they were discussing, and also that John was near the same area, though still in the rafters.

Logan had been searching for John since the laser guns had stopped firing. He could smell him, and knew he was close, but he couldn't seem to actually get a bearing on his actual location. _Dammit, he's using his abilities to mask himself._ Logan was starting to get angry as he wandered into the center of the room he had entered.

John, crouched on the edge of the walkway above Logan, smiled to himself. _That's it Logan, come and __get me. _John suddenly jumped over the railing as Logan turned around, and suddenly felt two feet right in his chest. Logan was knocked down hard as John used the feral mutant as a stepping stone, and leaped off into a back flip, landing in a crouching position about ten feet away from his fallen opponent.

Logan pulled himself to his feet, just in time to see John lunging at him once again. The older mutant unsheathed his claws again and swiped at John with his right, which the faster one ducked, and countered with a left over the top, which Logan blocked. Logan tried a left swipe but John was able to step back and avoid the attack, which he countered by grabbing Logan's arm and pulling, sending Logan off balance once again, as John threw him over his own body, sending Logan to the ground once again.

Now Logan was getting quite mad, and he got up and charged John with outstretched claws. John wasn't prepared for Logan's sudden burst of speed and was just able to dodge the attack, countering with a kick to Logan's gut. Logan swiped again with his left, barely missing John's cheek, but caught John's left arm with his own left. Logan then spun around and hit John in the face with a back elbow.

John grunted in pain, his left arm jerking out of Logan's grip as he turned away from the mutant holding his face. Seeking to press the advantage he'd gained, Logan charged at John once again, only to be met by John spinning around and hitting Logan in the face with a blast of psychic energy that stopped him dead in his tracks. It wasn't just the shot that stopped Logan, however, as he was able to see the damage his elbow had done to his opponent.

The right lens of John's sunglasses had been shattered, and a large piece of it was embedded right underneath John's eye. John, for his part, didn't seem to be too bothered by it, as he removed what remained of his shades, looking at them for a few seconds before tossing them away. "Well, at least they were only five bucks." He then reached up and, with a noticeable wince, pulled the glass out of his cheek before tossing it away as well, then getting back in a fighting position. "You ready to continue?"

Logan was almost dumbfounded. _How can he still be ready to fight? Can he even see out of that eye now?_ John smirked at Logan again, and he realized that the fight was definitely not over yet.

A new sound was suddenly heard, and John turned his head to look behind him just in time to see a gun that was a little larger than the ones they'd seen earlier only a few feet from his head. John's eyes went wide and he rolled out of the way right before the gun sent out a stream of flame from its mouth. Logan, having been in the way of the flames himself, was forced to roll to his right as well. John came up firing another psychic energy blast at Logan, catching him as he got out of his roll and sending him right back to the floor.

John the charged the older mutant again, but this time Logan spun around with his claws extended. John tried to turn his momentum, but the claws still caught him in the gut. John had been knocked off balance in his attempt to dodge the attack and Logan pressed his advantage with a right to John's jaw, sending him reeling against the wall. John avoided another claw swipe by Logan and caught him with a punch to Logan's gut followed by one to his jaw, which knocked him back away long enough for John to step away from the wall and recover slightly.

Another whir and Logan realized that the large cannon was behind him now, and ready to fire once again. Logan rolled out of the way as it did fire, but John was caught with the full fire blast. Logan stared at John with fear and concern as John's entire body was engulfed in flame. Logan noted, though, that John was standing there, letting the flames burn him, which struck him as somewhat odd. The older mutant cautiously walked toward John, but when he got close, the flames suddenly burst out from John's body, the force of the heat knocking Logan back to the ground.

As he picked himself up once again, he realized that the flames were being controlled by John. Indeed, the flames were dousing themselves, and John's face was now visible through them. The fire continued to die down as John stood there with his eyes closed, until only John's hands and forearms were covered in the flames.

John opened his eyes and looked at Logan with a smile. Logan immediately realized what was going through his counterpart's mind. _Oh, shit!_ Logan took off running for the safety of a hallway leading away from the room they were in, as John started shooting balls of fire at the fleeing mutant. After about a dozen shots, Logan found the safety of the hallway and kept moving, knowing that John would eventually be following. He winced at a pain in his shoulder, and noticed a rather large burn on it. _Damn, he used telekinesis on the fire? I'm getting way to careless._ Logan was so busy trying to find a place to recover and rethink his strategy that he didn't notice that John hadn't followed him.

Up in the control room, everyone was left speechless by this turn of events, as Logan never runs from a fight. "What is he doing?" Kitty couldn't understand what had happened.

"I think John surprised him with that ability, and Logan needs time to rethink his strategy." Ororo replied. The professor remained silent, as he was concentrating on what was happening in the arena below them. Beast had taken an interest as well, especially after the obvious injury that John had suffered.

On the screen, the mutants noticed John shaking his hands and the flames that had still been surrounding them dissipated. "The fire's out. I'm going to see what I can do against him!" Before anyone could stop him, Kurt had disappeared.

Logan had seen John dissipate the fire from his vantage point on one of the rafters that he'd fled to, but then John moved so that his view was obstructed, and Logan was unable to see what happened next.

Kurt had teleported from the control room into the air behind and above John, attempting to jump him from behind. John, however, had sensed Kurt's appearance, and spun around and shot a fireball at the mutant while he was in mid air. Kurt had been disoriented as he'd materialized and didn't have time to even realize that the ball was heading for him until it hit him. He fell down to the ground with a thud and laid there unmoving, much to the horror of John and everyone else in the room above.

As John stood there dumbfounded, Logan jumped down behind him, completely unaware of what had just happened, and unsheathed his claws. Before he could move, however, John spun around to face him and Logan felt himself being pushed back against the wall ten feet behind him. He ended up pinned to the wall, unable to move, as John walked up to him. "Game's over, Logan."

Logan looked at John with a mix of confusion and anger, but John stepped aside and Logan's face immediately went from angry to worried. His claws re-entered his hands, and he looked at John speechless. John let Logan out of the psychic hold he'd had on the older mutant and both of them walked toward the fallen elf. Logan was the first to speak. "What the fuck happened?"

"He teleported in behind me. I didn't even know it wasn't you until I'd shot him." John looked at Kurt sadly as he said this, not taking his eyes off the mutant.

"Shot him? With what?" Logan didn't understand what was going on, only that one of his friends had been hurt. John didn't say anything, but instead held out his right hand, open palm up. On his hand, a ball of fire formed, to Logan's shock.

John glanced at Logan before looking back at Kurt as he closed his hand around the ball, causing it to dissipate. "It's the only natural mutation I have." He sounded almost sad at this fact, but Logan was too shocked at what was happening to dwell on the topic. John knelt down next to Kurt and appeared to be looking him over. "He's alive, the fireball wasn't strong enough to do much permanent damage. He may have some scarring, and he'll have to be medicated and take it easy for a while, though."

As he finished speaking, the simulation turned off, returning the room to its normal white-and-gray grid appearance, as Beast and Kitty came through the door. John stood up and backed away as Logan and Hank loaded Kurt onto a stretcher the latter had brought into the room with him.

Kitty glared at John, obviously angry that her boyfriend had been hurt, and John couldn't bring himself to meet her gaze as she turned and followed the other three out of the room, leaving him all alone. _Shit, what have I done now?_ He looked around the room one last time before leaving it himself and heading for the med lab. He knew Hank would want to look at John's eye once Kurt was stable.

_A/N: Well, there you go. Next time, the fallout from Kurt's injury, and some of John's past will be revealed, at least, that's the current plan. Stay tuned, and as always, questions and comments are appreciated!_

_Also, just FYI, I have been having trouble finding time to write, so the next chapter may be delayed a little bit._


	5. Shadows of the Past

_A/N: Well, here we are, chapter 5. These chapters just keep getting longer and longer! I almost put the mission in the final part of the chapter as the start of chapter six, but in the end, I decided that six has a little bit of a theme to it, and this mission would have disrupted that theme._

_At any rate, there will be three more chapters after this one, at least that's the current plan. (When I started writing this, I'd only planned on it being 6 chapters long, so I may end up extending it further.) And, just so you know, because of the other story I'm writing, the posting of this one may be a bit slower._

_Also, because of the somewhat graphic violence in this chapter, I have decided to re-rate this as R/M as of now._

_Disclaimer, once again, cuz apparently it's what's needed here: I don't own X-Men! It's not for lack of wishing, though!_

**Chapter 5- Shadows of the Past**

It had been an hour since John had hit Kurt with his fireball. Kurt had been rushed into the emergency room, the same room John had been in the night before, and Hank had been in there with him since then. Charles had gone upstairs to his study for some reason, he hadn't elaborated on why, while Logan and Kitty were in the observation room watching Hank work. That left Ororo and John alone in the waiting room.

John was sitting in one of the chairs with his face in his hands, he had been this way since they walked into the room. Storm had been pacing the room some of the time, and sitting in a chair near John at others. Neither of them had said anything since coming into the room, though she had opened her mouth several times to speak, but had closed it each time without saying anything.

A heavy sigh from John caught Ororo's attention. "John?" He looked up at her, and she couldn't tell for sure what was going through his mind. His face seemed to be a mixture of anger, hatred, confusion, and fear, and if she was honest, he looked like he didn't know what was happening. "Are you all right?"

"Not really, no." Storm knelt down to look at his eye with concern, and noticed for the first time that his nose had also been bruised. _He probably broke it during the fight at some point, though it looks like he fixed it._ John apparently wasn't using his powers, because he didn't respond to her thoughts, at least not immediately. He did put his hand up to stop her from touching his bruise though. "Physically, I'm fine. My eye, my nose, they're already healing, and in a few days they'll be nothing more than a memory." Storm looked at him a little bit confused now, if he wasn't physically hurt, then what was wrong?

Before she could ponder that question more, the doors opened and Kitty walked out with Logan. Kitty noticed John, and her she immediately became angry. "What the hell are you doing here? Did you come here to gloat?"

John had been wrestling with several emotions, and now that Kitty was talking to him, anger was starting to win out. John stood up as his expression changed from confusion to anger. Logan noticed this and before John could say anything he stepped between the two. "John, you don't want to start more trouble."

Storm, realizing Kitty's emotional state and that it was going to cause a problem, decided to try to help separate the two. "Come on, child. Let's go find another way to relieve your tension, all right?" She led Kitty to the door, while adding. "Hank wants to look at John's injuries from the fight." Kitty didn't take her eyes off John until she could no longer see him for the door shutting.

John sighed and sat back down, looking at Logan. "I really made a mess of things, didn't I?" It was more of a statement than a question. John was aware that Kitty was holding him responsible for Kurt's injury. Truth be told, John was holding himself responsible as well, so he couldn't blame her.

"Hey, bub, why don't we wait until the professor talks to us. I don't think it's going to be as bad as it seems." Logan realized that even he wouldn't believe what he was saying, and he knew that the psychic sitting before him wasn't impressed, but he knew he had to say something. "Kitty is upset because this is the first time since the two of them started dating that he's actually been injured. Give it time and she'll get over it."

"No, she won't. She has no reason to." John closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. He knew that he was going to be tired after the fight, but the emotional strain that he'd been under for the last hour was draining him more than he'd anticipated, even as he was sitting there. Out of respect for Kurt's privacy, he'd intentionally refrained from using his telepathy to see what was going on in the other rooms, but he knew that it probably wasn't too good if it was taking Dr. McCoy this long to come to see him. "I know he'll live, but I'm worried that I did more damage than I initially thought."

Before Logan could respond, the door to the lab opened and Hank walked out. "Well, Kurt's unconscious, but he'll survive. He'll probably have a little scarring and he'll need to rest until after the holiday, but he should make a full recovery." He looked at John, seeming to notice his injury for the first time. "Let's take a look at you, shall we?"

"It's not necessary, Hank, but if you insist, I suppose I can't refuse, can I?" John smirked at Hank, but both men knew it was a false smile.

Hank knelt down to look at the eye carefully. He poked it lightly, and John winced a little, and after examining both it and John's nose, Hank smiled at his patient. "Well, it looks like you've already set your broken nose, and both of your injuries are looking like they're starting to heal. I guess you really do have some advanced healing."

"I do, but nowhere near as advanced as his." John nodded toward Logan as he spoke. "It works quite a bit faster than a normal person's ability, but I don't know if I could survive a bullet or a stab to a vital organ, like my heart, and honestly, I don't want to find out, either."

Logan snorted at John's comment, which John took to meant as a "thank you" for the implied compliment. Hank stood up and turned to the other mutant. "Well, I suppose I don't need to look you over. Your shoulder is burned, but it's almost all healed already, and any other wounds you received will be automatically taken care of by this evening, I'd assume."

"Yeah, Doc. I'll be fine. If there's nothing else, we need to go see the professor." He started for the door, with John standing up and nodding to Hank before following.

Charles looked up as Logan and John walked into his study on the first floor of the mansion. "Well, I take it Hank has seen you." Of course, the professor already knew the answer, but he still asked anyway.

"Yes, there isn't anything he can do to help me any more than my body already is." John sat down in one of the two brown leather chairs across the desk from Xavier, and Logan sat in the other.

"That's good, I suppose. How's Kurt?" The professor looked at both men with some concern on his face. The events of the last few hours had been rough on everyone, and he knew that John, Logan, Kurt, and Kitty were hit hardest for various reasons. John appeared to be struggling to keep his emotions in check, and Charles could tell that he was conflicted, though John's mental barriers prevented him from digging very deep into the young man's mind.

Logan, on the other hand, was easy to read. He was just barely containing his anger. Charles didn't really know for sure who Logan was angry with, but it wasn't hard to see what was on his mind, even if he wasn't psychic. Even so, it was the older mutant that answered. "He'll be fine if he gets some rest. There was no permanent damage, though he may have some scarring."

Charles smiled lightly at this. Everything considered, nobody getting seriously injured was probably a blessing. "Well, then, I suppose we should move on to other things. John..."

John had been staring off somewhere, his thoughts obviously not on what the professor was saying, but when he heard his name called his attention came back to the two in the room. "Sorry, sir. I'm a little distracted with everything that's happened today."

"It's all right, I know you didn't mean to do what you did. That's not the reason you're here right now. This morning, I ran your name through every database I could, and I have found absolutely nothing about anyone named John Kerogi except for a birth certificate from sometime in the early 1980's in Franklin County, Missouri. However, even the names of the parents have been removed from the certificate."

John chuckled lightly at Charle's statement. "I'm a ghost, I always have been. I suppose I should have mentioned that to begin with, but it didn't seem that important. Honestly, I'm surprised that there's any data on my existence at all, considering that the Organization tried their best to make it look like I didn't exist."

"As for my family, I don't know what my dad did with the military, although I do know it was classified. Even his marriage to my mother was considered top secret, as she could potentially be a security risk." John closed his eyes and shook his head, the memories of his childhood playing through his mind. "When he retired, we moved to a small town in northern Missouri, and he worked as a security consultant with someone he knew from his own childhood. It was two years after that when I was..." John stopped for a minute, his eyes beginning to well up in tears.

"Thanks to them, I am nobody and I have nothing, no past, no future." John's sadness was turning quickly into anger, and both men were concerned about his sudden apparent emotional swings. He paused again, obviously aware that his companions were uncomfortable around him, and tried to calm himself down before continuing. "There are no records of my existence other than those that the Organization has on their computers. Most of my life I have been using aliases in public, and in private I have been a slave. I'm sorry I can't help you more than that."

Before anyone could say anything else, the computer behind Charles started beeping. The professor turned around and typed something on the keyboard, and an article appeared on the screen in front of the three men. The article was a four year old report from a British newspaper about an explosion of a passenger ship at sea. In the article it mentioned a terrorist suspect being believed to be on board the vessel, and that the ship had exploded before a UN military unit could board it. One of the most prominent things the article had was a picture of what would be assumed to be the ship in question engulfed in flame.

As Charles and Logan read it, they became aware of John's anxiety and confusion toward the article. It was Charles who spoke first. "You are considered a terrorist?"

"Only in certain circles." John pointed at the picture. "Can you blow that up? Make it full screen?" A few clicks by Charles and the picture took up the entire screen, as John had requested. "That photo, it is of the _Euphrates_, but I don't know how it was taken."

Now Logan was a little confused. "What does that mean?"

"The ship was over 150 miles out to sea when it exploded, and it wasn't from a terrorist attack, at least not one on my part." John pointed to the front end of the ship, where there was a flaming hole in the side of the hull. "That hole was from a helicopter impact, not a bomb or missile."

Logan was getting angry that John had only partially answered his question, and he glared at the younger mutant, who continued after a few seconds. "There were two helicopters, both of them military, probably Organization, though I can't confirm that. They attacked, and those of us on the ship fought back, we shot down one, and I damaged the other one, but it hit the ship's side before it hit the water. It was the chopper that sank that ship, not me." He looked at Charles as he added. "And it was definitely NOT a passenger ship, though it was classified as one. Other than myself, everyone on board was either on the ship's crew or belonged to a paramilitary group that was using it as a mobile base."

"So, why were you on the ship?"

John sighed at Charles' question and sat back down in the chair. "It is a long story, one that I don't think I can properly tell." He closed his eyes and rubbed them, wincing as he rubbed the bruise along the right one, before continuing. "I can, however, show you. That is, if you'll both let me into your minds for a few minutes."

Logan was not excited about that request. "No way you're going anywhere near my mind, bub! Not without a good reason."

John looked at Logan for a second, his face not showing much emotion other than exhaustion. "What I plan to do is share my memories with you two, at least as much as is needed for you to understand the circumstances surrounding the destruction of that ship." He sighed and continued. "In order for you to understand why I was on the ship, though, you'll need to know the events leading up to me boarding it."

"It shouldn't be too much of an invasion, Logan. It would be more like him projecting the memories than really invading your mind."

"Ah, like Jean does sometimes?" Jean could, at times, project some memories that were particularly strong emotionally, and sometimes she did so without meaning to. Logan could specifically remember one instance where he'd suddenly been assaulted by images of her and Scott in bed together, something he wished he could get out of his head.

John seemed to be reading Logan's uncertainty and looked at Charles, who silently told him about Jean's ability. "I think I can control what you see a little bit better. I have more experience in that area."

Logan realized that he was going to have to go endure this whether he wanted to or not, and reluctantly nodded his acceptance. "All right, but I'm not going to guarantee that I won't want to kill you when we're done."

John smirked at Logan. "Fair enough. Give me a few minutes to get my thoughts in order, then we can begin."

John closed his eyes and appeared to almost fall asleep. Logan started to move toward the younger mutant, but caught a look from Charles that stopped him. "This is going to take a lot of concentration from him. He needs to prepare himself for the exertion." As soon as the professor had finished speaking, John opened his eyes again, and Logan noticed that they were glowing fairly brightly. A few seconds later, both older mutants were blinded by a flash of white light.

As the light dissipated, they realized that they were no longer in Charles' study. In fact, they were laying down on a table that they quickly realized was made of cold steel, probably some sort of operating table. They were staring at the ceiling, which had several lights hanging from it. Confusion and fear gripped them, and they realized that the emotions weren't their own. They were walking through John's memories.

John looked around and groaned, though it didn't sound like it came from an adult. Two men, who had been talking in German out of his field of vision suddenly appeared above him. The one on the left was dressed in a military uniform, dark green complete with several medals and bars on the left side of his chest. The man on the right was in a white lab coat, obviously some sort of doctor. It was the military man that spoke first. "Good to see that you're finally awake, John. I've been looking forward to meeting you."

John couldn't understand why this man knew his name, and it didn't make him any less afraid. "Who are you? Where are my parents?" John's voice was not of the man that Logan and Charles were used to hearing, it was the voice of a child. This memory, they realized, was probably from soon after John had been kidnapped.

The military man laughed at John's questions. "Your parents are no longer a part of your life. You are mine now. My name is Col. David Raines." The man's laughter abruptly ended and he frowned at John. "But you will address me as 'Sir.'" John tried to move his hands, only to find that they were pinned to the table. He was trapped. The colonel laughed again and turned to the doctor across from him. "You may begin the treatment whenever you're ready."

The doctor looked at Col. Raines with a fearful look in his eyes as he backed away. "Yes, sir, but I must caution you again, it would be much easier for the boy if he were unconscious for this."

"No, he must be awake. He must get used to enduring pain and suffering. This will be only the beginning of what is to come, and you know it as well as anyone!" The military man was getting angry at the doctor's protests, obviously this wasn't the first time he'd had to hear them. The men started to argue once again in German, and John couldn't help but be more scared with every word that the two men said.

After a couple minutes of arguing, The doctor walked over to a console across the room from the table John was on and pressed some buttons. The table he was on suddenly moved, and John found himself inside some sort of machine. Before he could even try to guess what was happening, the machine's lights came on, and he was bombarded with an intense and nearly unbearable pain.

A flash of light came after a few seconds of the pain, and suddenly John was on the ground. Picking himself back up, he became aware of stinging pain in several areas of his back. Turning around, he noticed a man in a uniform similar to the Colonel, with less bars and medals, standing about ten feet away wielding a leather whip.

"I told you that I would not tolerate failure!" John turned back around and came face to face with the man he recognized. "You will learn to control the ability we have given you, or you will continue to get the punishment! Am I understood?"

John sighed silently before weakly responding, "Yes, sir." He was immediately punched in the face by Raines, which sent him back to the ground.

"You are still far to weak to be of use to me. He turned to the man with the whip. "Toughen him up. Give him ten more." He turned back to John, as two soldiers grabbed him and tied him to the post near where he'd fallen. "You will get tougher, and you will learn to control your ability. I have many plans for you, and I won't allow weakness to stop them!" He turned and walked away, down a hallway as a door closed behind him. Before John could think of anything else, a stinging pain ran up his back, and he realized that he was being whipped once again.

Another flash and suddenly John was blind. No, not blind, blindfolded. The Colonel was barking orders to John and other people John couldn't see. "Use your ability. See your enemies and defeat them." John walked forward cautiously, his arms loosely in front of him, as if he wasn't sure where he was. Truth be told, he had no idea where he was, where the walls of the room were, or where his enemies were. He heard something behind him and spun around, nearly losing his balance, but steadying himself and beginning to walk toward the source of the noise.

Suddenly he was knocked off his feet by a punch to the right side of his jaw. As he scrambled and lunged back at the direction of the punch, he ate another one, this one to the left side. John stumbled a few steps before falling back down to the floor. "Dammit, John, you are worthless!" The Colonel was obviously getting frustrated at the boy he'd referred to as his student. Not that John wasn't getting frustrated with himself as well. He knew what he was supposed to be able to do, but he hadn't yet been able to accomplish it.

"Sorry, sir."

"Don't give me 'Sorry!' Give me success! Get the fuck up and try it again!"

"Yes, sir!" John picked himself back up and stood there for a minute. He had been acting on instinct, but he was starting to realize that maybe he could be trying to concentrate instead. He let all his emotions go from his body and suddenly, even though he was blindfolded still, he could swear he could see shadows and movement near him. Suddenly one of the shadows was heading straight for his head. He dodged to the side and struck out with a right hand, which connected with someone's nose, earning a painful scream from someone. Smiling John turned and caught another shadow that was heading for him before striking another foe in the gut with a knee, then grabbing the man's shirt and throwing him to the ground.

"Excellent job, John. You're finally learning." John removed the blindfold and looked around. One soldier was laying on the ground to his right, blood gushing out of what was obviously a broken nose, another was doubled over in pain to his left, holding his ribs, which may have been broken from the knee he'd been given. John looked up onto a balcony to see Raines standing there with a smile on his face. John saluted him, and the Colonel saluted back. "You're finally starting to become a soldier. We'll try this again tomorrow."

Several soldiers appeared around John, one of them holding what appeared to be some sort of electronic collar. John sighed and allowed the soldiers to put the collar on him, then he looked back at Raines. "Yes, sir." He turned and followed the other soldiers out of the room.

Another flash and another change of scenery. Now John was standing face to face with Raines, and it was obvious that some time had passed, as John was taller, and Raines now had some gray steaks in his hair that hadn't been there before. John spoke first. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes, I have another mission for you." Raines motioned and the two soldiers standing next to John left the room. "You have become one of our best agents, but the mission I have for you now is one that you cannot be completed by one person."

John was curious about what was happening, and was suddenly aware of another person in the far corner of the room, hidden in shadows. "I take it he's supposed to be my partner?" John pointed to the corner, and knew that the hidden man was surprised that he'd been noticed, even if Raines wasn't.

"Yes, he is. Come on out, Adam." The man walked forward, and John noticed that Adam had a collar around his neck. "As you can see, he is one of you."

"I figured as much." He looked from Adam to Raines. "I've seen him around, but he's new."

"Yes. His power is quite useful, though. He can hit almost any target from any distance."

John looked at Adam. "You can anticipate movements? An interesting ability."

"Thank you, sir." Adam had been curious about the conversation the two men had been having, and decided that since he was being spoken directly to, it would be a good time to voice those questions. "You are a mutant? Where is your collar?"

John let out a slight chuckle before responding. "I have been around long enough to gain the trust of the leaders here. As such, I'm not shackled as much as most of the others. And if you require proof of my ability..." John turned his hand palm up in front of Adam, and the gun on the younger mutant's belt came flying into it. "All you need is to ask." John looked over the pistol carefully, taking out the ammo clip and noticing it was empty.

"I am allowed to keep the gun, but I can't have it loaded on the base." Adam replied to John's questioning look. "It is something given to me when I joined the military. The man who gave me it died saving my life, so I was told I could keep it when I was transferred here."

John handed the weapon back to the other mutant and turned back to Raines. "So, what is the mission, anyway?"

"Ah, yes, the mission. It is simple enough. There's a politician in Britain who's become a bit of a problem for our cause. We need him removed."

Adam scoffed a little at the mission. "Well, that doesn't seem too hard, why do you need two of us?"

John glared at Adam for a second before Raines responded. "Well, the problem is two-fold. First, it is almost impossible to get to him unless it is in a public setting. Secondly, he is extremely paranoid, and will frequently use doubles and fakes in his appearances. He needs to be removed from a distance, which you excel at, Adam. However, John is probably the only one capable of telling if the target is the real one or a fake."

"How can he do that?"

"The same way that I knew you were in the room when I entered it. The same way that I know that you are American, that you have a younger sister, and that you are from New York, even though I've never seen or heard of you before now."

The realization suddenly came clear to Adam. "You're psychic."

John simply smirked at the other mutant before taking the folder that Raines had held out for him. "Thank you, sir." John turned around and started to leave, but paused after taking a few steps. "By the way, congratulations on the promotion, General. It is long overdue." He then left the room, followed quickly by a still confused Adam.

Once they were in the hall, Adam spoke up. "So, you can tell by telepathy if the target is the real one or not?"

"Yes, I can. All I need is some information that only the real target would know, things like place and date of birth, family, other things that no two people have in common no matter how much they appear the same." He looked at Adam carefully now, as the walked down the hallway. "You volunteered to be a part of this?"

"I heard that it was a group that was specialized in using mutants." Adam was silent for a second before adding. "You mean you didn't?"

"No, my employment, if you wish to call it that, was forced upon me. In fact, most of the mutants here were captured and forced into service."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Nobody does. Fact is, officially this group doesn't exist. Only the military unit that leads it does. It allows us to do things that normally would go against international law, such as the mission we are about to take on. Fact is, your presence here may not be officially recognized, though if it was voluntary, I'd imagine it would have to be."

Adam thought about this for a second before replying. "You've obviously been here a while. How old are you?"

"I'm nineteen." John appeared to be a little embarrassed by this. Adam looked at him dumbfounded as John continued. "And yes, I've been here for over ten years."

"Ten years!? But that would have made you..." Adam couldn't even finish the statement.

"Yes, I was eight when I was kidnapped and brought into the Organization. They did experiments on me to make me into a mutant, to make me their assassin. It is the only life I know, so I accept it." John continued walking as Adam paused to consider this for a few seconds. "By the way, you should know that we are being watched at all times, especially here in the base." Adam snapped out of his trance at John's words and ran to catch up to him.

"So, we are leaving soon then?" Adam wasn't sure how this mission was going to work out for the two of them, but he was starting to get an uneasy feeling about it.

"Yes, the assassination needs to be done as soon as possible. We have a list of his appearances for the next week in the folder, along with all the personal data we could find on him. Our plane will be leaving in an hour. Don't worry about identifying the target, I'll handle that for you. All you'll need to do is point and shoot."

Adam sighed slightly as they continued walking. "It's all business with you, isn't it?"

"Only when it needs to be. I've seen a lot of people get hurt by their personal relationships in this line of work. You would do well to remember that."

"Of course." By now they had reached the end of the hallway, and an elevator that would take them to the ground floor of the base, and thus the airstrip. "But I must wonder, why are we doing this? What is our purpose?"

"To bring peace to the world. At least that's what I've been told since I got here. So far, I have no reason to question it." John entered the elevator as another flash occurred.

This time, the flash was shorter than the previous ones had been, and suddenly John was outside in a large crowd of people, many of them holding signs and cheering. As he looked around he noticed he was in a plaza surrounded by several buildings, apparently this rally was in some sort of a park inside a city. Around the park were several armed military personnel, and many more were among the crowd and along the stage that John had managed to get up next to.

"Bloody hell, at least it's not raining." John was using a noticeable British accent, good enough to fool the crowd or anyone else who didn't listen too closely. Because of his hood, nobody could see that in his right ear was a small two-way radio, which he was using to communicate to Adam.

"Yeah, just be careful what you say. We really don't need your cover blown before things get started." John smirked at his partner's comments. They had been working for three days trying to find the target, they'd been at several events he was scheduled to appear at, but so far they'd been unable to get to him, as either they weren't in position or the target was one of his doubles.

"Whatever. You have your sights on me?" John was speaking quietly, so that nobody could hear him other than the person he was speaking to.

"If you were the target, you'd already be on the ground."

"Good, because I've got the target in my sights." John moved closer to the stage, preparing for something, though Adam didn't know what. "Wait for my signal."

"Great, lucky you. But how am I supposed to know who the target is?"

"Don't worry, I'll show you if you pay attention."

Before Adam could respond, a nearby band started playing music as several people walked onto the stage. Many of them started shaking hands with the people next to it, and John took the opportunity to shake all of their hands as well. As the fifth person approached him, he spoke to the man. "It is an honor for you to take time out of your schedule and grace us with your presence."

The man looked surprised at the words of this stranger, but he thought nothing of it. "The pleasure is all mine. Thank you for your support." He smiled at the mutant and moved on down the line as John started to walk away.

"All right, I have the target."

"Good. Give it thirty seconds, then fire. Be aware, though, security is still very tight, just getting out of your building is going to be difficult. I'll meet you outside, but you'd better hurry."

"Gotcha. Thirty seconds." John quickly made his way through the crowd as best he could without trying to raise suspicion. This proved quite difficult, and in the thirty seconds he'd only managed to get about a quarter of the way from the stage to the back of the plaza. As the man was walking across the stage, suddenly a shot rang out, and the curtain behind the man was splattered red as he fell over. Immediately, the crowd began to scream and scatter in fear, though no more shots rang out. John used this chance to make his way fairly quickly to the back of the plaza, where Adam was going to be.

Along the way, he uses his powers to sense Adam's presence in the building. He could sense Adam was already on the stairs heading for street level, but he could also sense several armed security forces were near the building, and were ready to go into it. "Adam, you're going to have a lot of company in about a minute. You need to get to the next building over."

"Yeah, right. Any ideas on how to do that?" Adam was sounding somewhat out of breath, it was obvious that he was hurrying and was a little bit worried about getting away.

John mentally scanned the area around his partner, and the building next door. "Get off on the fourth floor, take a left, the end of the hallway has a window that's open. You can jump to a balcony across the alley from there."

"Gotcha." John continued his trek to the far end of the plaza, and in the rush of the crowd, he really didn't stand out any in his worried and panicked look.

Adam, for his part, did as John had told him, and successfully made it to the next building. As he came down to the ground floor, however, he realized that he couldn't exit without being seen by the security personnel. Cursing himself for being somewhat trapped, he attempted to sneak out into the ally between the buildings. He found a door that led to the alley after a couple of minutes, but when he stepped through it, he came face to face with the end of a pistol. Before either person could do anything, though, The soldier stiffened before dropping his weapon, then falling limply to the ground. Behind the man, John held a knife, stained in blood. "We need to get moving, fast."

Adam nodded, but drew his gun anyway. "Where to, sir?"

John sighed and shook his head. "First, I've already told you a dozen times, don't call me 'sir.' Second..." He paused for a second looking around before continuing. "I really don't know yet. Cover me for a couple minutes, will you?"

"Cover you? What for?"

"I can get us a route out of here, but I need to concentrate in order to do so, which means I can't be running around and killing people."

Adam thought about this statement for a minute before realizing what John had in mind. "Oh, right. You got it." He looked around quickly, then added. "Can we do it somewhere more defensible, though? I'd rather not have to try to watch my back at all times."

"Yes, follow me." John led him back to the main street, into the throngs of people. By now the entire military and police force in the area had been alerted, but since nobody had seen the shooter, they had no idea what they were looking for. After running down about a block and a half, John pulled Adam into a dead-end alleyway. "This should be easier to defend. Now, just give me a couple of minutes, and I should be able to get us out of the perimeter the military is already setting up."

"You sure you can do that?" John didn't respond to the question, instead he just sat down against the wall and closed his eyes.

Adam, for his part, took a defensive position behind a garbage bin that was in the alley. Several soldiers ran by their hiding spot, but none stopped long enough to realize that the man who was apparently homeless and sleeping against the wall was in fact anything but. After what seemed to Adam like an hour, John opened his eyes once again. "All right, I have a route, but you're not going to like it."

"Why is that?"

"Because we'll have to go in there." John pointed to the manhole cover that was under the garbage bin Adam was hiding behind. Adam groaned, it was somewhat well known that he didn't like underground areas, though nobody knew why. Adam and John both pushed the bin off of the cover, then John used his ability to remove the cover.

"You sure this is the only way?" Adam wasn't happy about the idea of being in those tunnels, and he really didn't like the smell either.

"No, but it's by far the safest way. That is, unless you'd like to take on the entire British military." Adam refused to comment further, upon hearing John's explanation, and climbed into the opening. John soon followed, using his ability once again to replace the cover.

"All right, now what?" Adam looked around, he knew that he would easily get lost in this place.

"Well, we need to get to the airport. The easiest way to do that is the subway, which runs almost parallel to this tunnel we're currently in, just three blocks over." John looked at the surroundings carefully. "The biggest problem is that it's going to be hard for us to get from here into one of the subway stations without being seen. Once we're in a station, we should be home free."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Lets get going, the sooner we get to safety the sooner I can relax."

John couldn't help but smile at his partner's comments. "All right, follow me." He began to walk down the tunnel.

_A/N: Well, there's another one down! Next up, I'll continue John's trip down memory lane, including why he left the Organization, and what the Euphrates has to do with it. Also, there will be more between John, Kitty, and Kurt, at least that's the plan, anyway._

_Before I go, I have a few people I'd like to thank. First, Hydronix. He's a friend of mine who's given me a LOT of input on the chapters and story, though most of it has been in private. He's also been great at checking my spelling and grammar!_

_Secondly, Whiteinu1: Thanks for the support. I hope you continue to enjoy this story. Also, thanks for adding me to your Favorites list!_

_Reika-san: Thanks for adding me to your Favorites as well._

_As always, reviews and comments are appreciated! I'll try to reply to them, at least on here, though I probably won't in person._


	6. Break Away

_A/N: No, I hadn't forgotten about this story. Fact is, I got halfway done with this chapter and got a case of writer's block. I just couldn't get the helicopter sequence to sound right in my head, let alone put it down correctly in words. Unfortunately, I have to admit that the Final Fantasy story is getting a lot more attention than this one is, so it will be the one that gets most of my focus. That said, I won't give up on writing this one, I just may not update it as frequently as I would like._

_So, what's in this one? The second half of John's trip down memory lane! I had actually originally wanted to put Logan's and Charles' reactions in this chapter, but it was getting too long, and I was also worried about having enough material for the next one anyway, so I decided to put the aftermath all in one._

_Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men, Marvel, Disney, or anyone else that may have copyrights in this story._

**Chapter 6- Break Away**

Another flash of light and now John's vision was cloudy. Wherever John was, he could hear a woman's voice, but it didn't appear that she was talking to him. John looked over, and it became obvious that the woman was actually talking to someone on a phone. From the looks of things, they were in some sort of motel room, there were two beds with a nightstand between them. The beds didn't seem to be too lavish, and it was probable that it was a fairly cheap motel. Most of the conversation was being handled by whoever was on the other end of the line, but from what John could hear, he wasn't very happy.

"Yes, the bomb is in place." The woman's voice was muffled, but she had an Eastern European accent to her. "Tomorrow morning at 11. You're sure he'll be there with only his security? You know I don't like killing innocents, sir. Good, I'll return after the job is completed. Yes, sir. Good bye." She hung up the phone, and turned to lie down on the bed. It was early in the evening, but she was obviously quite tired.

"You lied to her, sir." John's voice was more clear than the woman's had been. "The building is still open. Many people will die."

"Yes, I did, John. Don't concern yourself with that. It is a means to an end." The voice belonged to General Raines, and much like John's, it came through quite clear. "And you can't warn her of the consequences of her actions."

"But, sir!" Suddenly there was a slight pain in the back of John's neck, and his vision blurred more than it already was, before completely disappearing, to reveal a room filled with computers and monitors.

"That's enough for today, John. Go get some rest." Raines motioned for him to leave, and John stood up and saluted before walking out the door and into the middle of a hallway.

"You seem upset." The man had been standing near the door waiting for John to come out. John knew he was there, though, so he wasn't surprised about it. The man seemed to be a few years younger than John was, and his bald head had a small scar on the top of it. He was dressed similarly to John, in a green full body suit. It was the standard issue uniform for them while they were in the base and off duty. The man spoke with a noticeable German accent, though it was obvious that he was trying to hide it.

"He's lying to Natalia so that she'll complete the mission, but I'm worried about the effect it'll have on her."

"How bad?"

"Approximately six hundred will die." The man cringed at this statement, but continued to walk with John as they moved down the hallway.

"She will overcome it. She's a lot tougher than she looks, you know."

"I know that, Friedrick, but it's still hard to say that Raines is going about this the right way. I mean, I'm smart enough to know he's looking for shock value, but to me it just seems to be overkill."

"You know they'll be watching me when I go in there. I can't warn her any more than you could."

"I know that, but it doesn't make it any easier to take it." By now they had reached the end of the hallway. John pressed the button to summon the elevator so they could return to their quarters.

"I just wish that there was more that we could do for our kind." Friedrick was a mutant like John. Also like John, his power was telepathy, and he was brought into the Organization unwillingly. Unlike John, however, Friedrick's powers were natural, he'd had them before he was brought on board. Although Friedrick was a good telepath, John was much better, and without the machine that John had been using a few minutes earlier, Friedrick wouldn't be of any value to the Organization at all.

"We're doing what we can, for everyone. At least that's what I've been brought up to believe." The bell rang and the elevator doors opened, and the two mutants entered. "That said, it's getting harder to tell who's really benefiting from our work."

"Indeed it is. The Organization's power continues to grow, but to what end?" Friedrick looked over at John, and noticed that he was grimacing slightly. The younger mutant immediately knew the cause. "They still haven't said anything about that?"

"No, they haven't, and the pain's getting worse." John groaned slightly as he held his stomach. "I think they know what's causing this, but I don't know if they can do anything about it. At least I'm hoping that's why they won't say anything." John closed his eyes for a few seconds, and willed the pain away. When the bell rang again, to signal that they'd arrived at their destination, he opened them back up and walked through the door.

"I'm sorry, mein friend. I wish I could do more for you." Friedrick followed John out the door.

Another flash, and now John was in some sort of computer room, searching through various files. As he searched, he would pick out certain files and copy them onto a device he'd plugged into the computer. It was fairly obvious that he was stealing the files, and that he definitely shouldn't be where he was. Especially since when he looked to his left, there was a guard lying on the floor, his eyes wide open in shock, and a sword still sticking out of his chest.

After a few minutes of searching, John paused at one specific file. The name on the file was in German, it simply said "roten Stein."(1) John knew this was the name of a group that had recently been founded in Russia, and the fact that it appeared here was of great interest to him. He pulled a device out from under his shirt sleeve and inserted it into the computer, then downloaded that file onto the new device, before removing it and replacing it where it originally resided. He then went back to his job.

Another flash and he was somewhere else, a cafe of some sort. He was sitting at a table with a laptop, waiting for a program to run on the computer as he drank a cup of coffee. Across from him sat another man, who was talking in German to someone on a phone. After a few minutes, the other man hung up and spoke to John. "If you are right and the Russians are trying to pull something, we're all going to be in deep shit if it goes south, you know." Like Friedrick, this man had a noticeable accent, though his wasn't quite as thick and it was obvious he'd been working on concealing it.

"Karl, if I'm right and the Russians are up to something, I don't think it's going to matter what the outcome is. It's probably going to end badly for us no matter what." As he finished speaking, the computer beeped, causing John to look at it. On the screen was a message, "Translation Complete." John hit a few buttons on the keyboard, and several files sprang up. After a minute of reading, John's face went extremely white.

"Vat is it?"

"We were wrong about our situation." John shook his head and shut the laptop as he got up and started for the exit. "And we've all paid for it." He turned and quickly walked out of the cafe, with Karl following right behind.

"What do you mean we were wrong?"

John spun around to face his friend. His face had gone from shock and fear to anger and hatred at a speed that even Karl was surprised at. "Not here, not now. Later tonight, when Fred and Natalia are able to talk about it with us." John made his way over to a waiting vehicle and got in as it sped away.

Later that night, the four sat in a small room with two beds. The room was shared by Karl and Friedrick, and at this point all four of the mutants in the room had collars on. Security had been increased around the base lately, and even John had had some of his freedoms taken away. As it stood now, the four were huddled around John's laptop, and he was showing them the files he'd translated earlier. Natalia was the first to speak up. "So, we are hunting our own kind?"

Karl had to respond to this question. "It would appear so, though I didn't think that any of my targets were mutants."

"They probably weren't. The Organization has been expanding its targets to include anyone who could potentially be a threat, in addition to their stance as an anti-mutant military force." John's anger was evident in his voice. He was still having trouble believing that General Raines had been lying to him for fifteen years about his purpose. But there it was in black and white. The papers themselves had been classified at the highest level, not by any single government, but by the United Nations itself. It was fairly obvious that nobody had bothered to read the reports, but they were there all the same.

The Crimson Knights, the military unit that was led by General Raines, the same unit that was secretly the head of the Organization, was created to promote peace. But under his leadership, the Organization's motives had been altered to have one focus, the annihilation of all mutants. And in order to carry out this directive, Raines had authorized the use of mutants under the public guise of promoting peace. The thought made all four of them sick.

"I can't continue to do this. I _WON'T_ continue." John was barely containing himself at this point.

"Vat are you going to do? If you rebel you'll only get yourself killed. Especially with zese damn collars on." Natalia's own anger was causing her to revert to her Russian accent. She had been speaking English for as long as she could speak Russian, but it took her years to overcome her accent. Even now, when she got particularly agitated, it would show up.

"They have to take the collars off when we leave the base. Though they have been putting tracking devices on our clothes and chaperoning us all the time. If I can surprise them when they remove the collar, maybe I can find a way for all of us to get out of here."

"Vhy you, John? Vhy can't we help?" Friedrick hadn't spoken much, he really had little need to, but he knew that this wasn't going to go well for them if John took all the responsibility.

"Because I'm the one most adapted to handle it. Because I'm the one they trust the most. And because I'm the one who'll probably be sent off base first." John's logic was very hard to argue with, and all three of them knew it. Reluctantly, they all agreed to follow his lead.

A few days later, John was told he was going to Iraq. It seemed to him that the mission came up suddenly, but he wasn't going to raise suspicion by asking questions, he was too smart and too experienced for that. He was surprised that night, though, when four men grabbed him as he slept and dragged him into the General's quarters.

"I must admit John, I'm disappointed in you. I would have thought you'd be ready for a surprise from me." He gestured to the men holding him. "I would have expected you to fight back."

"If I would have considered it a test, I would have. Fortunately for them, I was still half asleep when they grabbed me." The General frowned at John's weak excuse, and even John himself had to admit that it wasn't going to hold up under much scrutiny.

"Well, lucky for you the real test is downstairs. Take him down and get him ready." It appeared that Raines wasn't too worried about what John was doing. John, however, became quite worried at what the General had planned for him.

The four men drug John down to the training room, where they proceeded to take off his collar. John seized the moment, and before anyone could react, he'd taken out all four of his captors. He quickly tied them up and ran from the room. He muttered a curse at the timing of all of this, because Karl and Natalia had left that morning for a job in Italy, leaving Friedrick as the only partner he had on the base, and he was on duty in the control room tonight. John sighed and used his mental ability to contact Friedrick. _Plans have changed. I'm making my break now._

_Shit man, I can't just walk away from here and live, you know that!_ Friedrick was afraid even more than John had expected him to be, and John quickly realized why. As he ran down the hallway toward the elevator, he scanned the base and realized that there was no way for him to get to his friend and make it out of the building alive.

_I know, I'm sorry. I promise you, when I get the chance I will return and get you and the others free, or I'll die trying. I wish I could say more, but..._ John had to cut his thoughts short as the elevator opened and several armed soldiers started firing at him. John ducked down a side hallway, but not before throwing a psychic blast at the shooting guards. He hoped that it would knock them out, but knew that even if it didn't do that, it would at least slow them down.

At this point, someone in the control room must have realized what was happening, maybe the General himself, as at this point, alarms and sirens started blaring all throughout the building. John quickly and carefully made his way to a little used stairway near the back of the building. He knew that he couldn't exit the building from this location, but it could get him away from the guards, at least for a moment.

He was lucky, as it appeared that the guards were slow to realize that he knew of this access point, and he was able to get down to the second floor of the building with relative ease. Once there, he was able to use his mental abilities to keep an eye on all the soldiers searching for him in what was essentially a maze of offices and hallways. He was forced to take out a few of the guards, but his skills allowed him to do so quickly and quietly. After a ten minute game of cat and mouse, he had wound his way over to the main stairwell. All he had to do now was go down the stairs and he'd be in the front lobby.

Of course, that's easier said than done, when the lobby is populated with twenty soldiers armed with various automatic rifles and orders to kill on sight. Sighing, John realized that getting out of here unscathed was going to be next to impossible. To make matters worse, the soldiers on the second floor had realized that he was no longer there, and were making their own way downstairs.

John considered his options for a minute, then realized that he had no choice but to move forward. Using his telekinetic ability, he managed to trigger the fire alarm in the lobby. As part of the automatic response, the sprinkler system began to shower the entire lobby in water. John managed to concentrate hard enough and long enough to use the water drops as projectile weapons of his own, sending them flying at the soldiers at a high rate of speed. John knew that this tactic wouldn't be deadly, but it would keep the soldiers from being able to shoot him as he ran past them and toward freedom.

As he passed through the double doors, he was blinded by another flash of light, and he found himself falling, landing face down in a puddle of water. As he picked himself up, he noticed a sharp pain in his gut, the same pain that he'd experienced in the earlier memory, but this time it was much worse. And unlike before, this pain wasn't going away. John stumbled forward, through the rain that was falling at a steady pace. He was in some sort of an alley, and ahead of him was a clearing.

In that clearing, two men stood speaking to each other. With a shake of hands one of the men left, entering a warehouse across from where John was. John realized that the man still standing outside was the one he was looking for, and stepped out of the alley and into the man's view as he called out to him. "Doctor Karn."

John's voice was barely above a whisper, but the doctor apparently heard him as he jumped in surprise before turning around to see John stumble and fall once more. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

John was breathing heavily, panting. The pain in his gut was spreading to his chest. "My name... isn't important... I was sent... by Strider." John paused, as even speaking these few words was nearly suffocating him. "I'm dieing... I need... your help." And with that, John passed out.

When he came to, John realized that he was lying on some sort of a bed. He had a breathing tube in his mouth, he quickly realized, and because of that, he couldn't speak. He was both relieved and concerned when Dr. Karn, was almost immediately standing over him, shining a light in his eyes and otherwise examining him.

"Good, you're awake. I was hoping we wouldn't lose you yet." The doctor smiled at John, and even though he was weak, John was able to concentrate enough to realize that the Doctor's smile was genuine. "I saw your blood work, and I think I know what the problem is. You were the victim of some sort of gene therapy, and since you were sent by Strider, I can only assume that means that you are a mutant."

_I am._ Karn didn't seem too surprised to be able to hear John's thoughts. Since he was a geneticist, though, he was probably capable of identifying mutations based on location, and if so, he could probably guess John's ability.

"Good, it appears I was right in my assessment of your condition." The doctor smiled again and walked back over to a computer, typing some things in before coming back. "Your case is unique, I'm afraid. You see, your psychic mutation isn't natural, it was given to you by whoever did this gene splicing on you. And from the looks of things you were still quite young when they did it, too."

_I was eight years old at the time._ John didn't know why he felt compelled to give the doctor that information, but he couldn't stop himself. It didn't matter, he figured, and the information could help save his life.

"Ah, yes, that would explain a lot then." He looked at the computer screen once more, then walked back over to John. "The problem is you were a mutant already. The genetic alterations that these people did to you caused you to gain psychic abilities, but it also repressed your natural mutation. Now that mutation is trying to assert itself, and in doing so it is tearing your body apart."

_A natural mutation? Why wasn't I aware? _John's mind was going a thousand different directions at the moment, but his focus was on what Dr. Karn was telling him.

"Your natural mutation is elsewhere on this strand, it was physically unaffected by the initial splicing, and because you were so young at the time, it hadn't become active yet, so there's a good chance that whoever did this to you probably wasn't aware of it themselves."

_How could they not be?_ John was already under the impression that he was being lied to, and now he was hearing proof of it.

"I don't know, it's possible they did know. It depends on if they knew what they were looking for." Karn was silent for a few minutes before he continued. "I can help you, but there are risks, and you have choices to make."

_The risks are immaterial. I should be dead already. Tell me the choices._

"All right. You have essentially three choices with which I can assist you. The first is to remove your natural mutation and keep the spliced one. The second is to remove the splicing and keep the natural mutation. The third is for me to do a second splice that will hopefully stabilize your genetic code and halt the degeneration." He paused for a few seconds before adding. "There is a fourth option, however. You can do nothing and die a slow and painful death."

John was silent. He knew what he wanted to do, but he also knew that it was by far the riskiest of the options. It only took him a few seconds, however, to realize it was what was necessary for his survival. _I'll take the second splicing. I know it'll be painful and there's a good chance I can die, but it will be the one that will benefit me the most if it is successful. Besides, if I do survive it, it'll look good on your resume as well, won't it?_ John couldn't help but get a small amount of humor into his comments. The doctor realized this and laughed a little bit as well.

Suddenly John realized several things at once. First, he had no idea where he was. Second, he wasn't feeling any pain, in fact, it was like much of his body was numb. The third thing he realized was that there were many people in the area, outside the room he was currently in. Although he couldn't focus his mind much beyond the door, he knew that everyone outside was quite agitated about something.

It seemed as if the doctor was reading his mind, or perhaps John was projecting his thoughts into him without realizing it, but either way, the doctor placed a hand on John's chest. "Relax. You are on a ship, the _Euphrates_. It is designated as a passenger ship, but in reality it is a private military vessel. We are currently about two hundred miles off the coast of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean. Whoever it is that hurt you before, they can't get to you now. A friend of Strider's deserves nothing short of the best possible care." The doctor looked at the IV that John suddenly realized was in his arm. "You are on a morphine drip. That is why you are having trouble concentrating. To be perfectly honest, with the amount of morphine I've given you, I'm surprised your conscious, but I suppose you have a high tolerance for things, don't you."

John nodded weakly and closed his eyes. He realized that even if he wanted to, he wasn't going to be able to go anywhere anytime soon. He decided to relax as best he could and let the doctor do what needed to be done to save him. Soon, he found himself blacking out.

The next few memories came through as if they had been cut and edited together in a hurry. It was fairly obvious that John was trying to make the presentation go faster, and in doing so had put together several conversations with Dr. Karn into one series of comments. Either that, or in his recovery, his memories had been distorted and this was all he could clearly recall.

"Surgery was successful... New abilities... Healing increased... Regeneration... Create and manipulate fire... Amazing... Can go soon..." After this, there was just darkness.

John woke up suddenly, scared and confused. He noticed that the breathing apparatus had been removed as had the IV, and he quickly had to wonder why he was jolted awake. Suddenly, the entire room shook, and many loud pops could be heard coming from outside the door. John realized quickly that the pops were gunfire, and that could only mean one thing. They were under attack.

Quickly, he gathered some clothes that had been left near the bed he was laying on and got himself dressed. He opened the door just a crack so that he could look out. Spotting a soldier he recognized, John gabbed him and pulled him into the lab. The soldier, unaware that John was awake, let out a startled scream before realizing what was happening.

"Hey. What the hell's going on?"

"We're under attack, genius. Would have thought you could tell that, what with your powers."

"Yeah, well, I just woke up, so I'm still a little out of it. Who's attacking?"

"Beats me, got two helos circling us, and a third landed on the pad and the soldiers from it are running roughshod over us. We never saw them coming until they were already here!"

John closed his eyes for a minute, trying to find the enemy. He didn't have to search far, because even though most of them were still on the external decks, a few had made their way down into this area of the ship. He could tell right away that they weren't shielding themselves from his mental probing, either they weren't aware he was here or they didn't think he would be able to sense them. "Damn, its the Organization." John looked to his friend. "Get everyone ready for a fight. These guys aren't going to give up, and they aren't going to go away, especially if it's me they want." He pointed to the pistol on the soldier's waist. "Mind if I borrow that?"

"Sure thing. I have more than enough firepower with this, anyway." The soldier held up his AK-47. John used his telekinetic abilities to take the gun from the soldier, then they both left the room quickly and quietly.

After about ten seconds of running, they came to an intersection, where they could go left, right, or up. The soldier pointed to the right. "I have to go meet the rest of my unit. You're going to probably want to go after the enemy, so you'll be heading that way, right?" He pointed up as he asked. John only nodded, then saluted the soldier, who saluted back, then disappeared down the hall. John climbed the ladder, already aware that nobody was on the deck above him, and stealthily made his way toward the door to the outside portion of the ship.

As he got about halfway down the hall, the door opened up and three Organization soldiers ran through it, only to be promptly gunned down by the mutant. He paused over the bodies, picking up some more weaponry, including a semi-automatic and an assault rifle. He knew once he was outside he probably wouldn't need these as much, but within the confines of these corridors, it was much safer to use standard weapons than mutant powers.

John made his way through the opened door, and found another intersection. Using his psychic abilities, he was able to map himself a way to the outer decks of the ship, but he had to pause to update the locations of the enemies and allies every so often. He helped some of his friends, if they were near where he was, but he knew that he couldn't afford to go too far out of his way to do so, as the helicopters could, and if need be would, blow the entire ship up.

Using his mental map, John quickly made is way to the ship's outer decks. He paused for a minute, since by now he could hear the helicopters and the gunfire from outside. He also needed to reassess the situation, since he knew there were both enemy and friendly soldiers out on the deck, and he needed to be able to tell them apart.

After a few seconds, he was able to focus enough to pick out three enemy soldiers that were near the doorway in front of him. Opening it, he quickly fired off six shots at the two enemies directly in front of the door, before turning around and shooting down the one he'd sensed on the deck above. He then ran over to the small group of allies hiding behind cover. "You guys all right?"

One of the soldiers motioned to him to get down as one of the helicopters flew overhead. "That damn helo is cutting our forces apart on the upper decks. In addition, we have two in our group that is wounded."

John realized quickly that they were sitting ducks here, but he also knew that at least one of the wounded wouldn't survive long enough to get medical care anyway. "All right, everyone who can needs to get below decks, I'll see what I can do about that chopper." He paused and looked around, realizing suddenly that he could currently only sense one. "Where's the other one?"

"It got hit and flew off, we don't know if it was destroyed or just damaged." The soldier was pointing out toward what John could only assume was the shoreline, still over 150 miles away.

"All right, get moving. I'll cover you." He paused and looked at one of the soldiers, who had a wound in his chest, and was currently unconscious. "He's not going to make it anyway. Leave him."

The soldiers nodded, and moved to get into the doorway that John had just come out of. As they did so, the damaged helicopter reappeared from the far side of the ship. _SHIT!_ John realized that the group were going to be cut down by the machine guns of this helicopter, and shouted for them to get down. Unfortunately, he was too late, as the chopper opened fire, strafing the entire deck and cutting down all six of the soldiers who were trying to make it to cover.

After the helicopter's strafing run, John ran to the doorway he'd come out of. He knew that he'd been spotted, and that they knew he was still alive, so it'd only be a matter of time before it came back. Indeed, just as John reached the doorway, bullets started flying once again, but thankfully, he was able to get inside and avoid being shot.

From behind the cover of the bulkhead, John tried to figure out the current situation. Concentrating, he tried to focus on the helicopter attacking him specifically and realized that it was hovering around the doorway, waiting for him to reappear. John, however, was smarter than that, and instead used his psychic ability and a lot of effort to rip the bulkhead door off its hinges and throw it at the waiting machine. The chopper was forced to dodge out of the way of the flying piece of metal, which gave John the opportunity to fire off a fireball, connecting directly with the cockpit and causing the entire airship to explode. _One down, one to go._ John then left his cover, trying to find the other helo.

It didn't take him long, as the helicopter was firing its machine guns a couple of decks above his current position. The problem he had was getting there without getting shot himself. Steeling his will, and summoning whatever energy he could muster, he sprinted up the steps to the next deck up, shooting an enemy soldier who had apparently witnessed the destruction of the first helicopter. As he ran down this new deck, the helicopter appeared from above him. Caught without cover, John quickly fired off a fireball, hoping to at least distract the operator and buy him some time. The helicopter did move, but began firing as it did so, and John was struck in the right shoulder by one of the bullets. He fell to the ground with a groan, but willed himself to get back up and get inside a nearby door where there was some protection.

The helicopter could be heard falling back, away from the ship, and John took that to mean that he may have damaged it. Leaving his cover, he tried to find any soldiers that were in the area. Unfortunately for him, an enemy soldier saw him first, and tackled him to the ground. The two began to fight, but in John's wounded state, his mind wasn't clear enough at the moment to put up an effective defense. In the end, he grabbed the soldier, and used his own momentum to throw the man over the railing of the deck. The soldier held on to John, however, and sent him over as well, to the steel roof of the forecastle two decks below.

John didn't know how long he laid there, he had blacked out on impact. But when he came to, he was barely aware of the whirring of a helicopter as it came closer to his position. Clearing his head quickly, John realized that the damaged helo was coming back once again, and this time he fired off a shot before the chopper could take aim. He smiled in satisfaction as his fireball hit the blade control, causing the entire thing to burst into flame. His smile quickly faded, however, when he realized that the helicopter's momentum was bringing it toward the ship. John turned and ran for the far side of the ship, jumping off as the helicopter struck the side and exploded. When he hit the water, blackness once again overcame him.

After a few seconds of blackness, two voices could be heard. The voices were mumbled, almost muted, but John could hear that they were speaking English, though with very thick accents identifying them as Eastern European. As he laid there with his eyes closed, he became aware of the pain in his shoulder, and suddenly remembered being shot. The men's voices became more clear, and John could now hear what they were saying. And he wasn't sure he liked what he was hearing.

"We need to throw him back over." One of the men commented.

"Why? He is harmless and wounded, and we may get a reward for turning him in." The other voice seemed to be coming from an older man, and as John's mind became more clear, he could read the two of them. They weren't soldiers, only fishermen, and they were actually both scared of what would happen if he woke up before they got to shore. The first one, John noted was the subordinate of the other, and indeed the second man was older. In his current state of exhaustion in injury, he couldn't dig much deeper into their thoughts than that without them noticing, so he decided to just play dead for now and listen to them.

"What if he was from that boat?" The younger man was wanting to play it safe, but the older of the two was more concerned with fame and fortune.

"So what if he was? Maybe he was the one who caused the explosion! If so, we will be rich and famous!"

"He's too big of a risk. We need to get rid of him!" The younger man had been moving toward John as he spoke, and as soon as he finished, John could feel a pair of hands grabbing his shirt and trying to lift him up. Acting on instinct, John grabbed the man's wrists and kneed him in the ribs knocking him to the side, as John sprung up off the bed, grabbing the arm of the second man as he pulled a gun out, taking the gun from him and pointing it at the owner.

"Nimm mich in den Hafen." John assumed they were German, but as soon as he'd spoken, they looked at him as if they didn't understand. The younger man tried to get up, as John had actually directed the statement to the older of the two, but a quick kick to the man's ribs knocked him back down. John now moved to pin the younger of the two, while keeping the gun trained on the older, then repeated his order in English, though with a heavy accent. "Take me to port!"

The older man hesitated, obviously he didn't like being held hostage on his own boat, and John was forced to clarify. "I can and will pilot this boat myself, but I'd rather not kill you two."

The older man nodded at this and turned to walk out the door. John grabbed the other man, and pushed him out in front, holding the gun to the younger man's back. Outside the cabin was the ship's control room, and although it was fairly up to date as far as technology, it was still a two-man operation and thus most of the work had to be done manually. John found a place to sit down, where he could watch both men, as they traveled in silence for a while.

After a while, the younger man spoke. "We found you in the water, what happened?" John looked at the man, debating on how to answer that question. He knew, from what he'd overheard, that they were aware of the explosion on the _Euphrates_ though obviously they didn't know anything other than that.

"I was on a boat, and I got into a fight with someone. Son of a bitch pulled a gun on me and I went overboard trying not to get shot, obviously I wasn't successful in the attempt."

"That boat that exploded?"

"It's possible. When was that?"

"Almost 24 hours ago now. We saw the flash, but we didn't know until we got closer that it was a boat. There wasn't much left of it, no survivors we could find, other than you, and it sank rather quickly." The older man, apparently the captain of this ship, provided this information. "I suppose maybe you were lucky you got off the ship before it blew."

"Ja, sure, very lucky." John was completely emotionless in his words, though is mind was anything but calm. He had no idea what had happened after hitting that second helicopter, and if he'd been in the water for nearly 24 hours, he was VERY lucky that a shark or something else hadn't gotten to him yet, especially with the blood that was still coming out of his shoulder a little bit. He glanced down and noticed that he had been bandaged up. "Who did this?"

The younger man commented again. "I did. I'm no doctor, but I did what I could." John looked at the bandage and shrugged.

"You didn't do too bad. It'll do for now at least." He turned tot he captain now. "How long until we're docked?"

"It'll be a couple of hours at the earliest. We are a good 240 kilometers out, and this boat doesn't go too fast." John just nodded and looked out the window. He was well aware by now that the two men were scared of him, and that neither of them were lying, so he relaxed slightly.

"You are a soldier?" The younger man spoke up again.

"I was, yes." John didn't turn his gaze from the window. He really didn't want to answer questions right now, but he knew that they were both curious. "I had a falling out with my CO and resigned."

"And the boat?"

John knew there weren't any survivors. Most of the soldiers, especially the command crew, had been on the upper decks when the attack occurred. Because of that, the helicopters would have torn them apart. Those who were below decks were probably killed in the explosion, or drowned when the ship sank. "They are gone to a better place." John's voice now hinted at the sorrow he felt for his lost comrades. The two men exchanged glances and said a silent prayer for the lost souls.

It took a little over two hours to get to dock, but because of John's memory, the time flew by in a matter of seconds. As the boat docked, John led the two out onto the bow of the ship. Standing out next to the railing he sighed, then turned to the two fishermen. "You kept your end of the bargain, now I'll keep mine." With that he unloaded the gun, then tossed it back to the captain, dropping the clip on the floor next to him. "Thank you."

"Wait. What about the ship?"

"You said nobody survived. I am not about to change that." Before the two could respond, John jumped over the railing and into the water below, and blackness consumed the watchers once again.

_A/N: Well, HOPEFULLY the next chapter won't take three months to get out! As I said in the beginning, the next chapter will deal with reaction from John's memories, and some more with Kitty and Kurt._

_Translations:_

_1. R__ed Stone_

_The second one, I didn't bother to translate, since the English translation is in that same paragraph! (Take me to port.)_

_Please review and comment!_


	7. Gone

_A/N: OK, here we go with another X-Men chapter. After this the story will have one more chapter and probably an epilogue of some sort._

**Chapter 7 – Gone**

As the darkness faded, Logan and Professor Xavier found themselves back in Charles' study. John was sitting in a chair, his eyes were closed, his breathing shallow. It was fairly obvious that John was still coming out of his trance-like state. After a few seconds, John gasped and breathed heavily, the strain on his mind having taken a toll on him physically as well as mentally. The youngest mutant's breathing settled down slowly, and once it did, he opened his eyes to look at the two men.

Neither of them could believe what they'd just seen, if he had simply told them about it they would have thought he was lying. The fact that they had witnessed it as he had so many years ago, however, gave them an appreciation and confirmation as to the accuracy of his life. John gave the two men a small smirk. "I've been on the run from them since."

"Do you know how they found you four years ago?" Charles wasn't particularly happy about that development. John knew he wouldn't be, but he had a right to know the risks.

"As far as I can tell, my mental defenses were down when I was undergoing the surgery. During that time, the other psychic mutant was able to track me down on behalf of the Organization. I know he didn't do it willingly, to some extent, they can control the abilities of the mutants with those collars. All he would have had to do was pick up a trace of my presence and the General and his men could have guided his powers in that direction."

Logan had been silent the entire time John and the professor were talking, processing what he'd just seen. Suddenly he realized that the power John had shown on the ship was much greater than what he'd shown in their sparring match. "You held back this morning, didn't you?"

John knew this question was coming, but he didn't want to answer it, so he chose to ignore it. "It should be safe for me to be here at least for a few days. The other mutant's power isn't as strong as mine, and his range even with that machine is limited more or less to Europe."

Charles realized quickly what John was doing, and decided to play along. "Well, for now then, you can stay here."

"Thanks, but I shouldn't stay too long. They may not know exactly where I am, but they're probably aware I came to the United States. If that's the case, with their knowledge and resources, they will find out about this place fairly quickly."

Charles sighed and sat back in his chair. "You're probably right, but as long as you are here, we will help you, if you'll let us. This Organization may be a problem for our kind, and for this Institute, but it isn't a problem that we can't solve, especially with your help."

John smiled at the professor and stood up, preparing to leave the room. As he did so, Logan stepped in his way. "John, did you hold back in our fight this morning?"

"Let it go, Logan. It's not worth obsessing over." Charles knew why Wolverine wanted to know. He also had an idea of why John didn't want to discuss it. Because of this, he was genuinely concerned about what was going to happen of Logan pushed the issue.

"Let it go? Charles, the entire reason for that duel this morning was to find out what he was capable of. If he was holding back, we didn't find out a damn thing! Now, you may know how big of a potential threat John here is, but I don't and it's supposed to be my job TO know!" John had slipped around Logan as he was speaking to Charles, but Logan grabbed his arm and spun him back around, now shouting at the younger man. "DID YOU HOLD BACK TODAY?"

"YOU'RE GOD DAMN RIGHT I DID!" The frustration and anger in John's voice surprised even Logan, forcing him to take a step back, as John stepped toward him. "You want to know how big a threat I am to this place? If I thought I was a threat I wouldn't have come here! You're pissed off about me not giving you everything I had? Well look at what me holding back did to Kurt!" John's anger had begun to dissipate, being replaced by sadness and sorrow, but the fire in his eyes remained. "If I had gone against you all out, you would be sitting in a bed right next to him! And yes, you would have survived, and yes you would have recovered fully, but it would have taken about a week, and for that week you would have been in an amount of pain I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy!"

John sighed and backed away from Logan, then continued his rant in a calmer voice. "The fact is, I made a mistake earlier today, and because of that mistake, Kurt is lying in a bed downstairs. That is my burden to bear, not yours and not anyone else. You want to yell at me for holding back, Logan? As far as I'm concerned, I didn't hold back enough!" With that John turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Charles wheeled himself around to face Logan, speaking as he did so. "Well, all things considered, that went better than I thought it would." By now he could see the shock and a few other emotions on the mutant's face. "What's wrong?"

"He... He blames himself for everything that's happened in his life. He blames himself for the deaths of all those aboard the _Euphrates, _for the deaths of the people in Africa, for all those he's killed believing he was giving justice to the world." Logan looked Charles in the eyes now, and Charles could see the anger and worry had been replaced by sadness, and the psychic realized that as John had been yelling at Logan, he was also projecting his emotions. "He has more hatred and contempt for himself than I could ever have for him."

"Then more than anything, he needs our help now, not our accusations and scrutiny." Logan nodded at Charles' statement.

"I'll need some time to think about it all, but you're probably right, Chuck." With that, Logan excused himself from the room, leaving the telepathic mutant to his own thoughts.

John didn't want to admit it, but Logan had a point. They knew nothing about him, and the test this morning had been an attempt to find out more information. He hadn't wanted to yell at Logan either, but the strain of having two other people in your mind had severely tested his nerves, and Logan's insistence on getting answers had completely fried his last one.

He had spent about ten minutes in the greenhouse replaying the events of the day in his mind. Now, after having stopped at the kitchen for an energy bar and something to drink, he was making his way down to the medical bay to check on Kurt. He knew that Storm and Kitty were somewhere in the basement of the mansion, he could sense their presence, but he hadn't been to that area and he really didn't want to disturb the two of them at this time.

As he entered the bay, he nearly ran directly into Beast, who was only saved by his own agility. "Oh, hi, John. I wasn't expecting any more patients today. Did you need something?"

"Actually, I wanted to see how Kurt's doing. I didn't have the chance to earlier." Beast looked at John for a second then motioned for him to follow. The two walked into the room across from where John had been the night before.

Kurt was laying on the table, unconscious still, with his shirt removed and his entire chest area covered in bandages. John sighed and slumped his shoulders down, looking like a scalded dog as he walked up to the blue-skinned mutant's side. He looked closely at the wounded elf, then at Hank. The doctor immediately understood without being asked what John wanted to know. "I wasn't lying earlier. He will make a full recovery, other than some possible scarring." He motioned to the bandages. "He's going to be sore for a couple of weeks probably, and it'll be a while before he can walk around without any bandages."

John nodded and looked at the bandages. "So, what are you using to treat the burns anyway?"

"Typical lotions that most hospitals would use. I also gave him a shot of painkiller, so that he won't be so sore when he does wake up." At John's somewhat curious look, he elaborated. "He should be coming too in another hour or two, I'd say."

John nodded again, but asked a question that surprised Hank slightly. "You have any Kamaline leaves?"

"Uh, yes, actually I do. Ororo likes to keep some on hand for her arthritis. Why do you ask?"

John looked at Hank questioningly, apparently he hadn't thought of the weather witch as being old enough to be suffering from that ailment yet. He shrugged though and looked around. "Can you bring me some of those and some aloe?"

Hank was now the one unsure of what was being asked, but responded anyway, fetching the items for John, who had grabbed a small bowl and what appeared to be a small crushing utensil. "What are you going to do, John?"

John took the leaves and started to crush them up in the bowl, adding a small amount of water to the solution and in the process, creating a paste. "The Kamaline leaves are a good herbal remedy for arthritis, but they have several other uses. Mixed with the aloe as a painkiller and water to make the paste, and you have a topical solution used by some tribes in Africa and India to soothe burns and reduce scarring. It's actually a quite effective treatment for sunburns."

Hank looked at John surprised. This was a remedy he'd never heard of. John looked at his shocked expression and commented. "One thing we were all taught in the Organization was herbal medicine, in case something happened while we were in the field. I don't know any of the high tech stuff that is used in regular hospitals, but I can treat quite a few wounds and injuries from plants, herbs, and animal parts."

Dr. McCoy nodded his understanding and stepped back to let John work. "I'm impressed, I've never heard of that remedy."

John glanced at the blue furred mutant, then back to his work. "It's not commonly known. As I said only a few tribes in Africa and a handful of people in India do." Satisfied with the paste he'd made, he moved over to Kurt and looked at him sadly. "I'm sorry, doctor, but in order to put this on, I'm going to have to remove the bandages."

"And clean off the cream I put there, I suppose." Hank sighed, realizing that he was curious to see if the younger man was right. John just smirked at him and helped remove the bandages.

"Actually, those creams shouldn't hurt it any." At Hanks curious expression, he added. "The medicine you already put on him will help heal, this solution is more of a soothing medicine. There shouldn't be any interaction." He began rubbing the paste on Kurt, then added. "In fact, I read somewhere that it could actually help speed up the healing process on a burn like this."

Hank watched John work, keeping an eye on his movements and helping where he could. "You know, Kurt has an increased metabolism, it could affect the salve."

"It could, but I don't think that it'll do too much. It isn't a potent drug like morphine or anything that's controlled." By now, John had almost finished covering the burn with the salve, and he and Hank started to replace the bandages. As they did so, John looked once again at the burn. "I really screwed up this time." His comment was barely a whisper, but Hank heard it anyway. Before he could say anything, the door opened and Kitty walked in.

"What the FUCK are you doing here?" Neither of the two men had heard her come in, and John was busy with his treatment that he had lost track of the female. As such, they both turned to see her, surprised and shocked both at her sudden appearance and her outburst. She looked at Kurt's unconscious form as John tried to reply.

"Katherine, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to.."

"Trying to what? Finish the job?" Kitty walked up to John, not afraid of him. "Listen up and listen good. I don't give a FUCK who you are. You came here and you hurt my boyfriend. You are a problem that needs to get the hell out of this room and OUT OF OUR LIVES, NOW!"

"I..." John started to reply to her, but something within him suddenly came to light. Instead he simply bowed slightly to her. "As you wish." And with that, he excused himself, barely missing Storm as she walked through the door. As she looked around the room and noticed the fuming young mutant, she sighed.

"I didn't know he was in here, Hank. I'm sorry." Hank had finished replacing the bandages by now, and walked over to the silver-haired mutant. Kitty, once Hank had moved, pulled up a chair and sat down by her boyfriend's bed, taking his hand and holding it closely as she tried to hold back tears.

"It's all right. We should leave the two of them alone. Besides, I have something I would like to discuss with you." With that, the older mutants left the two teens to themselves.

"Dammit, Chuck this is a mess we're in now, isn't it." Charles had been able to sense Kitty's return to the medical bay, and her instant projection of intense anger. Knowing what had happened earlier in the day between them, he immediately knew that that was where John had gone. When he'd relayed this information to Logan, the mutant had gone for the door, but Charles had stopped him before he got to far, because he had been able to hear the conversation through Kitty's mind.

"I don't know John well enough to know what he's going to do, but if he thinks it's no longer safe for him to be here, I don't believe he'll cause us any trouble."

Logan looked at the professor curiously. "You don't expect him to just leave, do you?"

Charles looked at his friend and smiled slightly. "He reminds me a lot of you, Logan. He's not that bad of a person, but he has done bad things. The difference between you two is he still remembers all of those things he's done, and he regrets many of them. He was honest when he said he doesn't want to cause us any trouble, and I do believe that if he thinks he is, he will go."

"You don't want him to, though."

"I think that it is best for him to remain here. I worry that if he does leave here things will be much worse for him."

"And the fact that he's as powerful as you are in the telepathy department means that you can't track him, so if he does leave, he will be on his own."

"Indeed. I worry that there are those outside the Organization who wish to use his power for their own gains, and will do whatever it takes for that to come to fruition."

"You mean like the Brotherhood?"

Charles sighed at this question. "Yes, a mutant as powerful as John would be a great asset to someone like Magneto." The psychic became silent suddenly, as if thinking about something.

"What is it, Chuck?"

"I don't know. I get the impression that when it comes to John's past, things are more complicated than they appear."

Logan sighed as Charles revealed this information. "You know, that isn't a comforting thought."

"No, it isn't. But for now all we can do is wait and see what happens." With that, the two men left the room.

"Ugh..." The sudden sound startled Kitty. Looking around she realized suddenly that she must have fallen asleep sitting next to Kurt. The blue mutant was now awake, and was looking around.

"Kurt! You're awake!" She stood up out of her seat, leaning over and kissing his forehead. He moved to hug her, but groaned in pain, as the movement pulled on the burned skin of his chest. "Oh, sorry, Kurt! You all right?"

"I'm sore, but I'll be all right." Kurt looked down at his bandaged chest. "Ugh, the price I pay for stupidity, I suppose." He laid his head back against the pillow and closed his eyes again.

"Yeah, well, you don't have to worry about him causing you any more trouble, I hope."

Her words caused Kurt to open his eyes and stare at her. "Kaztchen,(1) what did you do?"

"I told him to go away and leave you alone and in peace." Kitty had thought that Kurt would be happy for what she'd done, but instead he shook his head and sighed.

"Kitty, you shouldn't have done that. It was my fault I'm here, not his." Kurt groaned as he tried to turn toward her, and a new voice spoke up.

"You know, you really shouldn't be moving much, you may aggravate your injuries." Both mutants looked to see Dr. McCoy and Storm had returned. It was the doctor who'd spoken, though he was halfway smiling. Storm wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the situation, however.

"Dr. McCoy, how long till I can go? I want to speak to John."

"What? Why would you want to speak to that bastard?" Kitty's anger was showing through once again, and Hank just nodded at his furry patient.

"Let me look you over once again, and you may leave." He paused and looked at Kitty. "If you don't mind, I'd like to do this in private." The young female nodded and left the room, along with Storm, and Hank turned back to Kurt. "Sorry about that, but there may be a problem with John."

"Vas?"

"I talked to the professor a few minutes ago. It seems that John was already blaming himself for your injury, and apparently Kitty's outburst a couple hours ago toward him may have done more damage to any relationships here than we know."

"What do you mean? Where is he?" Kurt was worried now. He wasn't sure how John was going to react to his injury, but if he had been beating himself up over it already and Kitty had added her anger to his misery, Kurt knew John was likely to become even more depressed.

"We don't know. His mental barriers are on par with anything the professor can create, so he's pretty much invisible if he wants to be. And it seems that right now, he wants to be invisible."

Kurt groaned at this news and started to climb off of the bed. As he did so, Hank grabbed him and helped him off, then brought Kurt over a sweatshirt to put over his wounds. His shirt had been removed so they could get to the wound, but the rest of his clothes were still on him. "I'm sorry, I had to cut the shirt off to get to the wound. It had a large hole in it anyway, though, so..."

"That's all right. I probably won't want to wear anything too tight with this wound anyway, will I?"

"No, you won't." Kurt looked at him and smiled, then turned for the door. Hank sighed and followed the younger mutant out the door. Standing outside, having a conversation of their own, were Storm and Kitty. Together, the four of them went to the elevator, as Kurt had mentioned that he wanted to get a shirt of his own since the sweatshirt he was currently wearing was a couple sized too big for him. When they reached the elevator, they were surprised to see Logan and the Professor on it.

"What's going on, guys?" Kurt asked the two.

"We were coming down to see you, and to see if John was down here still." Logan's comment seemed strange. He was never a caring person when it came to others, and he almost never showed concern toward strangers.

Kurt wasn't happy about any of this, he just shook his head and got on the elevator, followed by the others. It was actually Hank who spoke up. "We haven't seen him since Kitty and him had their... discussion a couple hours ago." This comment caused Kitty to wince slightly. She was starting to get the impression that the others believed she had overreacted, however she wasn't going to back down to anyone without a good reason.

The elevator reached the second floor in silence, and the six mutants exited one by one, as Kurt led them to his room. When they entered, they all stopped in their tracks. The room itself was undisturbed, but on Kurt's bed were the clothes that Storm had given John earlier that morning, folded nicely as they had been when they had been acquired earlier. On top of the clothes was a letter, which Kurt picked up and began reading. After a minute, Kurt looked up. "Oh no."

"What is it, Kurt?" Professor Xavier was curious about the sadness in Kurt's voice, and was rewarded for his question with Kurt handing the letter to him. He then grabbed a shirt off the table and teleported away before anyone could say anything.

"Where's he think HE'S going?" Logan spat angrily. It was bad enough he was running around loose, but the fact that he was wounded made it even worse.

Professor Xavier nodded, then began reading the letter, which he noted was handwritten by John.

"To Kurt, or whoever else may read this:

I am sorry for all of the trouble I have caused since my arrival last night. I had come here seeking refuge from the wars I've been fighting all my life. I had come seeking an escape from my past, from who I am. The events of today have made me realize that doing this was wrong. I see now that I can't escape my past, and I can't run from it. The only thing that I can do is face it. So, that is what I am going to do. I know where this path will take me, and I know what waits at the end of it. Odds are I won't survive, but this is something I should have done four years ago. Once again, I am sorry for everything. Gott schutze dich, mein Freund.(2)

John Kerogi"

After reading the letter to the others in the room, everyone's reactions were the same, though for different reasons. All of them were concerned and worried about this situation. It was the professor who spoke first. "Logan, go get Kurt and John and bring them back here."

"Yeah, sure, Chuck, but where did they go?"

"Kurt's gone to the train station. I would have to assume that he realizes that its the only way for John to leave town other than on foot or in a car, neither of which, if he's heading to Europe, will do him any good."

"You got it, bub." With that Logan was gone, leaving the others behind.

"What about the rest of us?" Kitty was just as worried as the rest of them, though his concern was more for Kurt than John.

"Hank, get the medical bay ready, whether Kurt or Logan finds John or not, I fear we may need to use it."

"Sure thing, Professor." With that, Dr. McCoy left the room as well. Charles then turned his attention to Kitty's question.

"As for you and Storm, I think the three of us need to have a talk."

_A/N: Chapter 7 done! And it only took about a week! Go figure._

_More translations, because I'm using a LOT of German in this story.I should note that Kamaline is a word I just randomly used, as far as I know, nothing like that actually exists._

_(1) Kitty- It seemed appropriate that Kurt would use this word occasionally. In all honesty, I have to admit also that I saw this word, or one similar at least, in another fanfic used by Kurt to reference Kitty, and I did like it._

_(2) May God protect you, my friend._

_Thank you to the people who have added this story to their favorites. To ShadowQueen1996: Thanks for the review._

_Next chapter will be mostly at the train station. Will Kurt find John or will someone else find him first? And what will Logan do?_


	8. Mystique

_A/N: Here we go, the first chapter to take place outside the mansion. It shouldn't be too hard for you to figure out who the "he" is that John and Mystique refer to in their conversations. And yes, he will be appearing in a future story._

_Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything except John and the storyline!_

**Chapter 8 – Mystique**

John walked down the wide main plaza of the Bayville Train Station. He was dressed in the exact same clothes he'd worn when he arrived at the mansion the night before, though Storm had washed them, so the blood on his shirt and jeans had been removed. He had managed to acquire a new pair of sunglasses, which were now hiding his eyes, as he stepped up to the ticket counter. "One ticket to New York City on the next available train, please."

"You want round trip?" The lady behind the counter seemed to be bored with her job, John noted. He decided that he was in a hurry, though and simply shook his head.

"No, one way. I don't think I'll be coming back here." The lady pressed some buttons on her computer and a ticket was printed out of a machine nearby.

"OK, that will be $58." John simply nodded and handed her the money, then took the ticket and looked at it as he left the line. The ticket said that the train left at 9:30 pm, just over two hours away. John sighed and made his way for the foot court, located off to the right side of the main plaza.

It wasn't long after John left the ticket counter that Kurt made his way though the station's plaza searching for his friend. The blue-skinned mutant had turned his hologram on, so he appeared to be a normal person as he wandered through the maze of people. Unfortunately for him, being short as he was made it difficult to see much around him. _Dammit, where is he?_ Kurt didn't like crowds, since if he accidentally bumped into someone, he ran the risk of them noticing the fur that his hologram was hiding.

Kurt was lucky for one thing. His sense of smell and hearing was heightened over most people, and because of that, he could tell that John had been here very recently. He decided to go up to the ticket counter and ask about him.

"Aren't you a little young to be traveling by yourself?" It was the same lady that had sold John his ticket, though Kurt didn't know it.

"Actually, I'm looking for my older brother. I think he would have been here ten minutes ago. He's taller than me, had on a long coat, hood, red shirt."

"Oh, yeah, the sunglasses guy. He bought a ticket and then went down that way." She pointed to the right, toward the hallway John had disappeared down.

"Thank you." Kurt commented quickly as he rushed off to catch up to his friend.

John was now walking down a hallway near the food court. He had gotten a small bag of fries, and quickly finished it, before purchasing a drink, which he was now sipping as he went. Knowing he still had well over an hour before his train left, he decided to just wander the station until it was time to go. Doing so also gave him a chance to think about what had happened to him the last 24 hours. He was lost enough in his thoughts that he didn't even realize that he was being followed until a man's voice spoke up behind him.

"Excuse me, sir, but would you please come with me?" John looked up, and turned around to see the voice, knowing it was directed at him. What he saw was a man in his 40's, wearing a security guard's uniform. Sighing, and not wanting to cause a scene in public, he nodded and followed the guard to a nearby room. Once he was in the room, the guard closed and locked the door behind them, and John realized quickly that this wasn't an interrogation room. In fact, it was a storage room, and a guard that looked exactly like the one who had brought John in here was laying on the floor in a puddle of blood. He knelt down before the guard to examine him, but realized quickly that the man was dead. Before John could think too much of it, the guard spoke again.

"So, you're John Kerogi." The guard scoffed at this thought. "I don't know why he wants you so badly. You don't look like too much to me."

"You're a mutant, a shape shifter." John hadn't turned his attention from the dead guard yet. "Mystique, I presume?" Now he turned to face his captor. "You know, you really should show your true face, since it is just us here now." The guard smirked at John, and the skin and clothing began to ripple, turning a dark blue in some areas, black in others. The bald head was replaced with shoulder length red hair. Once the transformation was complete, Mystique stood there, her black dress hanging just past her knees. Now it was John's turn to scoff. "What is it with mutants in this area and blue skin?"

Mystique laughed at his comment for a short period. "So, you've been to Charles' place. Can't say I'm surprised. What happened, they a little bit too good for your liking?"

"What makes you think I've left them?"

"You're leaving Bayville using public transportation, rather than one of his vehicles." John had to admit, that logic was fairly obvious. "Besides, I've read your file. Given what you've been through, I'd imagine your views are more in line with ours than theirs."

"Ours? You mean the Brotherhood's?" John had heard of the group, and its leader, when he was still with the Organization. He knew that Mystique was one of the top people in the group. The female merely smiled at him.

"Of course. Humanity should be running and hiding from us, not the other way around, John. Join us, and together we will make sure that justice is done for you, and all others of our kind."

John seemed to consider Mystique's comments carefully before responding. "It is true that the war you and your boss see as coming is much more likely than the utopia that Professor Xavier wishes for." John stepped toward the blue mutant as he spoke. "But if I had a choice, I would prefer to live alongside humans rather than enslave them. Nobody deserves to live like that."

"You would side with them over us?"

"I would prefer peace. I've seen far too many lives lost already in this fight. But if the fight comes to my door, I will stand up for what I am and what I believe."

"Then you would side with us in the war, and help us destroy the humans."

"Perhaps, but there is one small problem with your idea." By now John was standing directly in front of her, and before she could react, he grabbed her by the neck and threw her against the wall. "People like your boss do far more harm to our people than good. I would NEVER work with a terrorist like him." Mystique's eyes began to roll back in her head as John was cutting off the oxygen to her brain as he spoke. "You tell your boss that if I do see him, it won't be as friends, only enemies."

With that, he let her go and stormed out of the room, leaving Mystique gasping for air as she slid down the wall. As she caught her breath and her mind began to function once again, her fear turned quickly to anger. "Nobody says no to us and lives." She swore to herself as she grabbed a bag that had been hidden nearby and left the room herself. In her haste, however, she failed to notice that the dead guard's gun and radio had gone missing.

"DAMMIT! What is with the traffic tonight?" Logan was stopped in the middle of the main road through Bayville. He'd managed to get about halfway to the station, when all the cars around him slowed to a stop. Logan wanted to get off the road, but he was currently pinned in with cars in front and behind him, as well as to his left, and a concrete barrier to his right. _Chuck?_

_I hear you Logan. I'm a little busy monitoring things at the station. Thought you'd be closer than that by now._ Logan had to scoff at the professor's comments. He figured that Charles was keeping an eye on things as well as he could, but not being able to see John's location was making it tough.

_Yeah, well, the traffic on the main road is terrible, especially for a Monday night._

Charles was silent for a little bit, but the mutant knew he was only checking things out. _It seems that the road ahead is blocked by a large tree. I doubt it was put there accidentally, however._ Logan grumbled at this news, but before he could say anything, Charles continued his telepathic conversation. _Logan, you need to hurry. Mystique is at the station, and she is angry about something._

_Dammit Chuck!_ At this point, the car next to Logan had begun to move forward, and Logan turned his own car into the spot vacated, turning around in the middle of the road and heading back the way he'd come. He was familiar enough with the city to know alternate routes to the station, he just hadn't had a chance to take any of them since he'd been stuck in that spot for the last twenty minutes. _This is going to be a long night._

_I hope you're wrong, Logan, but I believe I'll have to agree._

Kurt was walking through the main plaza of the station once again looking for John. He had thought he'd seen him at least three times, but each time, he'd been wrong. He knew that John was still around, because he had been able to catch his scent a couple of times. He had almost given up when he spotted a long black coat and a red hood about thirty feet ahead of him. The man was walking the same direction he was, so he had to quicken his pace to catch up. A few times he lost sight of the man for a few seconds because of the crowd, but he always managed to catch him again.

After pursuing the man for a few minutes, Kurt ended up along the wall across from the station's entrance. As it was, he realized that the man must have turned, but Kurt couldn't find him. He started walking along the wall, and was startled when he was grabbed and pulled into a niche in the wall. The man forced him against the wall, holding him to it as he spoke. "You know, I really don't like to be followed, and I almost didn't recognize you, Kurt. You're lucky I didn't try to hurt you."

As soon as Kurt recognized John, he stopped fighting him and relaxed. "Sorry, mein friend, I wasn't sure it was you." John smiled at this and turned to walk away, with Kurt immediately following.

"So, you woke up and came here to see me off?"

"John, what you're planning is suicide. You've said so yourself. I can't let you do this, not alone. If you're going, then so am I."

John stopped at Kurt's statement and turned to face him. "No, you're not."

"And why not?"

"Because where I'm going it's not going to be safe. I'm going to start a war, and odds are I'll do things that I really shouldn't. You aren't a soldier, and your place is here, in Bayville. Besides..." John smiled and held up his ticket. "You aren't going to get on the train without one of these."

Before John could react, Kurt grabbed the ticket out of his hand. "And now, you're not going anywhere either, mein friend!" He placed the ticket in his pants pocket, aware that John couldn't take it from there even with his powers without the teen noticing. John simply sighed and started walking again, which got Kurt to move as well.

"So, why do you feel that you need to run off?"

John sighed, but continued walking. "Because I shouldn't have come in the first place." He paused for a second, then added. "I knew that coming to the mansion was going to bring trouble down on you. I just didn't realize how much of it would be at my hands." He glanced at Kurt. "I put you in the hospital, pissed off Logan and Kitty, and probably made the Professor think I'm twice as bad as anyone he's ever met!" He sighed once again. "It's pretty obvious that my being here has been an issue, and that I'm not wanted at the mansion, so why stay?"

"Because that's not true. I want you to stay." Kurt's voice was filled with sadness, which surprised John a little bit. "I don't blame you for what happened to me, it was my own stupidity. Kitty just takes things way to personally sometimes, and Logan's always pissed off." John smirked at Kurt's comment, and the two continued walking.

Unknown to either of them, they were being watched. Across the plaza, on a walkway that was closed to the public, a lone person laid on the ground. The person was dressed in full police gear, including body armor. In their hands was a sniper's rifle. "All right, John, just a little further, and you're mine." As he spoke, he looked through the scope of his rifle, and seeing John pass behind a pillar, unlocked the safety.

John's senses had been heightened ever since his earlier confrontation with Mystique, and as the sniper had readied his weapon, suddenly John was able to sense the danger. Quickly he grabbed Kurt by the back of his collar as he walked past, pulling him back against the pillar just as a shot rang out. The crowd began to scream and panic, many of the people diving for the floor, anticipating more shots, though none immediately came. "What the..?" Kurt started to speak, but John just pointed to the hole in the wall right where Kurt had been a second before.

"Mystique." Kurt's eyes went huge at this word, and he simply shook his head. At this time the radio John had attached to his belt blared to life.

"We have shots fired in Plaza A! I repeat shots fired in Plaza A!"

"This is Bayville SWAT Officer Jack Dolan. The shot fired was mine. There is a terrorist hiding on the platform. He is armed and dangerous, and has already taken out at least one of your security officers. Shoot on sight, and shoot to kill."

"Yes, sir."

"Dammit, Mystique." John rolled his eyes and stood there for a second, before looking at Kurt. "You all right?"

"Ja, I'm fine."

"Good, teleport back to the mansion. This isn't going to be pretty."

"There's too many people around, I can't teleport without revealing myself to them." John realized he was right, and also that there were several guards heading to their direction.

"All right. Stay here, and stay down. I'm the one she's after, so I'm gonna have to draw her fire." John poked his head out from behind the pillar, and immediately jerked it back behind, as a shot bounced off the side. "Shit, she's a good shot." At this point, guards had begun to flood the plaza, and John decided to get up close to them, so that he wouldn't have to dodge their bullets as well.

Charging at the first to come through the hallway leading further into the station, he ducked another sniper shot from the disguised mutant as he knocked the man down before he could draw his weapon. He then spun around, kicking the next guard square in the jaw, knocking him to the ground and out cold. Ducking yet another shot by Mystique, John used the momentum to swing behind a third guard, giving him a shot to the back of his head, then hurling him into his partner, who was standing behind the two.

One more guard came up the steps, and John simply grabbed him by the shirt, using his telekentic power to throw the man into the air, then jumping up himself, kicking the man in the side and sending him into the wall as a bullet whizzed between the two airborne men. As John landed, he pulled out the pistol he'd swiped, and pointed it in the direction the shots had come from.

At this point, he took a glance around the room, and noticed the people cowering and trying to hide. "Everyone clear out of here! NOW!" At his voice, all the civilians began to scatter out of the main plaza, leaving John, Kurt, and Mystique alone.

John could sense that Mystique was still lying there, her gun pointed right at him. Her anger and frustration at not being able to hit the mutant was causing her to project despite her mental barriers. "I know you're still there, Raven. Come on down and face me or I'll put you down where you are."

Mystique was surprised at John's statement. Several thoughts were running through her mind at once, most of them on the situation she now found herself in. _How can he tell where I am? Can he really hit __me from there with that gun? _As she thought, a security guard tried to sneak up to her and subdue her, but she was too fast for him. She grabbed him by the shirt, spun him around, and kicked him through the wood paneling that she had been hiding behind. Then she jumped down after him.

"I have to admit, I see now why he wanted you on our side so badly." Her body and voice were that of a man, but John was able to sense the difference. He also knew that she wasn't about to give up or surrender to him, even as she walked toward him with her arms held out.

John didn't lower his gun, well aware by now that there was more to her than it seemed. "Yeah, and yet you seem hell bent on destroying me."

The mutant smiled at his remark. "We have a philosophy, you're either with us or against us. And if you're against us, you're dead." By now she was close enough to John that when she'd finished speaking she was able to kick the gun out of his hand. She tried, in her disguised form, to punch him, but he was fast enough to dodge it, grabbing her arm and spinning her around before landing a punch of his own, which knocked her back away.

"You're gonna fight me like that?" John smirked at her current form. If she was going to play the part of a man, he had no problem treating her as such.

"Too late to change now. One thing we do agree with the Professor on is that it's too dangerous for us to reveal ourselves, and there are far too many cameras here." John couldn't sense the cameras, but he had figured there were some monitoring everything that had been happening. It made him wonder for a second why there weren't more security forces, but he couldn't ponder it long as Mystique charged at him again with her fists.

Again, he was able to dodge or block her swings and come back with a punch of his own, this time to her gut, before kicking her in the head and knocking her down. Both warriors realized quickly that while Mystique was in her current form she wasn't nearly as quick or agile as she would be naturally. However, her natural strength was increased with the increase in muscle mass.

Though Mystique was knocked down, she didn't stay there long, swinging her foot around to try to trip John. This move had actually surprised the psychic, and he found himself knocked to the ground by it. Both of the mutants scrambled to their feet, and John blocked another punch, this time holding on to the arm as he punched the "officer" twice in the gut, then a right hook to her face, sending her stumbling down again.

As Mystique got up this time, she spat out some blood from her mouth. _Damn it, bastard knocked my tooth loose._ She jumped to her feet and tried a roundhouse kick to John's head, but he ducked and swept her other leg out from underneath her. She landed awkwardly and laid there stunned for a few seconds, before groaning as she slowly started to pull herself up again.

Meanwhile, Logan had finally arrived at the station, and seeing several dozen people standing around outside, he could only assume that the fireworks had begun within. Grumbling to himself about missing the party, he kicked the doors open and went inside.

John's telepathic senses caught Logan coming in, as well as the obvious anger within him. This new sensation distracted the mutant long enough for Mystique to get to her feet, pulling a knife out and stabbing John in the gut as she did so. The sudden pain caught John's attention and he turned back to the other mutant, slugging her in the jaw with his right hand and knocking her back down. As she fell, her hand was still clutching the knife, and the blade scraped across John's gut as it was pulled out, creating a rather large and deep gash.

John was unable to stand for more than a few seconds, before falling to one knee, and holding himself up with his hands. Mystique glared at him angrily as she got back up, holding the bloody knife in her right hand. "Hah, if you're this easy to kill, maybe we don't need you after all." She raised the knife to finish the job, but Kurt sprung out from his hiding place, causing her to stumble sideways a few steps before she shrugged him off. The disguised mutant then sneered at the teen.

"You must be one of Xavier's brats. Guess I'll just finish you off first." She raised the knife again, aiming to throw it at the grounded mutant. John took what energy he had left and threw a fireball at the knife, hoping to disarm the mutant. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the ball of flame hitting its mark.

The fireball did hit the knife, but John had miscalculated slightly. When it struck the knife, the energy within it exploded, causing Mystique to howl in pain as she grabbed her face. She then turned and stumbled down the hallway leading deeper into the station. She hadn't been gone only a couple of seconds when Logan appeared in the entryway. By that time Kurt had recovered enough that he crawled over to John to check him. To the blue mutants horror, he almost couldn't find a pulse! He then noticed Logan, as the other ran up to him. "Mystique went down there. Go get her." Before Logan could say or do anything else, Kurt and John teleported away.

Logan grumbled, then noticed the blood pool where John had been laying. Realizing suddenly that he'd missed a lot more than he thought, he ran down the hallway after the shape shifter. About twenty feet down the hallway was a set of stairs leading to another set of platforms deeper underground. When he got to the lower platform, he realized that it was as deserted as the top. To make matters worse, once he stepped onto the platform, he lost Mystique's scent, which he'd been following up to that point. He spent the next half hour searching for her scent, or anything that would tell him where she'd gone, but in the end, he was forced to give up and return to the mansion.

_A/N: Well, the story is almost at an end. I have an epilogue chapter that will have a few surprises. I don't know how long it'll be, but it will be dialogue heavy, so it'll probably depend on how long the conversations are._

_I had actually planned on the Mystique fight being longer, but when I got to writing it, I'd run out of steam, so I had to shorten it. Besides, she'll be back, so maybe I'll do a longer one down the road._

_As always, I do appreciate reviews and comment!_


	9. Home

_A/N: This is the last chapter of my first story! I will probably edit it a little bit for grammar and spelling, but for all intents and purposes, it is now complete. And yes, the person I introduce in this chapter will be a pain in the ass for the heroes later on, and no, I won't be revealing his identity anytime soon, though you are more than welcome to guess, and if someone gets it right, I may acknowledge it._

_Disclaimer: I still don't own X-Men._

**Chapter 9 – Home**

The rhythmic beeping of a monitor greeted John as he woke up. As the fog of unconsciousness slowly left him, he became aware of a sharp pain in his gut. It was then that the events that had transpired came back to him fully. He leaned up and moved to pull the IV out of his right hand, when a voice stopped him. "You shouldn't move too much in your condition."

John stopped his movements, and laid back down, turning his head to the left and spotting Professor Xavier. "I should be going."

"Dr. McCoy said the only reason you're even alive now is your genetics. The knife..."

"Punctured my intestine, I know." John closed his eyes for a second before asking. "How's Kurt?"

"He's sore, but he'll be fine. He spent the night in his room last night, and he was down here about an hour ago to check on you." This information made John look at Charles again, which prompted him to continue. "It's just after noon on Tuesday. You've been out for a little over 16 hours."

"Oh." John closed his eyes again. He wasn't going to admit it, but he wasn't in any condition to try to leave right now.

"Why do you want to leave, John?"

"My presence here has caused nothing but trouble. If I stay, the Organization's eyes will eventually fall upon your institute. Half of the people here have been harmed by my presence. It would be better for everyone involved if I wasn't around."

Charles chuckled softly at John's explanation. "You're lying to yourself, you know. Kitty is upset, yes, but she'll get over it if you get to know her. Logan's angry, but not at you. Kurt holds no animosity toward you." He paused for a second before continuing. "Besides, your presence here is by far more of a help to us than a hindrance. The Organization would have eventually turned its eyes to us anyway, and if you stick around, we will be better prepared when they do come."

John scoffed at Charles' offer. "You know that what you saw earlier today is just a sample of what I've been through, what I've done, right?" Charles simply nodded his confirmation at this. "And yet you still want me to stay with you? Why? I would have thought that you couldn't wait to be rid of me!"

"I know that you have done things that I don't agree with, things that I find appalling. However, you have also shown remorse for those actions, and you are kind and honorable at heart." Charles paused for a second and closed his eyes, before continuing. "This institute serves many purposes. Among them is an opportunity for mutants to get a second chance."

"A second chance, huh? You think I'm worthy of one?"

"I wouldn't have allowed you to stay if I didn't."

John closed his eyes and thought about the Professor's words for a minute. "It has been a long time since I've had a place I could call home." He opened them and looked at Charles. "I suppose maybe this would be as good a place as any."

"I'm glad to hear that. One condition though."

"What is it?"

"I do not approve of killing, and it would be highly preferred if you would refrain from doing so."

John smirked at the Professor's request. "It's hard to provide a message of tolerance when one of your employees is a killer. Don't worry, I have too much blood on my hands already, I don't need any more if I can help it." Charles smiled and nodded, then turned to leave, but John stopped him. "Hey, Professor?"

"Yes, John?"

"Can you get Hank down here? I would REALLY like to get these damn monitors and IV's out of me!" Charles couldn't help but chuckle at John's comments as he turned and wheeled himself out of the room.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Mystique was waking up as well. The first thing she noticed was that the entire top half of her head was covered in bandages. The second thing she noticed was that her hands and feet were bound to whatever she was laying on. The third thing she noticed was that when she tried to shape shift into another person in order to get free, something strapped to her neck shocked her, causing her to fail in her attempt.

"I'm afraid that for now you're stuck there, Miss Darkholm." The man speaking had a very low, gravelly voice, which seemed to come from everywhere at once. Mystique tried to glance around, but with the bandages, she was completely blind.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"Who am I?" The voice laughed evilly at this question. "I am the one who helped John Kerogi become what he is today. I am the one who had plans for him. I am the one who cannot afford to have some half-wit trying to ruin my plans by trying to kill him!" Mystique cringed at the man's voice as it raised as he spoke. She found herself unable to reply, fully aware that at this moment her life was in his hands.

The man sighed before he spoke again. "However, your insistence on aggravating him may end up working to my advantage. He is not quite ready for what I have planned, and you may be able to help get him ready."

Mystique realized quickly that she was being given a way out and she quickly jumped on it. "What do you want me to do?"

"Whatever you wish. You wounded John, yes, but you will have to do much more than that to kill him. It occurs to me that your efforts will go a long way in testing him." The man laughed again as the collar around Mystique's neck shocked her again, this time, causing her to fade back into darkness.

_A/N: Well, that's it for Arrival. I'm going to take a little bit of time off and work on my Final Fantasy XIII story for a bit, but I'll return to the X-Men universe soon with my second story: Brotherhood._

_As always, please review and comment!_


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